Thanks for sharing Arden. I strongly upvoted because I think considering alternative views in population ethics is important and thought this write-up was interesting and clear (this applies to both your explanation of the paper and then your subsequent reaction). I’m also not sure if I ever would have got around to reading the Meacham paper myself, but I’m glad I now understand it. Overall I would be happy if you were to share similar write-ups in the future!
To give some more specific thoughts:
I found your discussion about how rejecting IIA may not be that weird in certain situations quite interesting and not something I have really considered before. Having said that I still think (counter to you) that I prefer accepting the mere addition paradox over rejecting IIA, but I now want to think about that more and it’s possible I could change my mind on this
I think I agree with your ‘ad hoc’ point about Meacham’s saturating counterpart relations. It all seems a bit contrived to me
Having said all that I don’t think I find the ‘radical implications’ counterargument compelling. I don’t really trust my intuitions on these things that much and it’s worth noting that some people don’t find the idea that ending the world may be a good thing to be counterintuitive (I actually used to feel quite strongly that it would be good!). Plus maybe there is a better way to do this than by bombing everything. Instead of rejecting things because of ‘radical implications’ I prefer to just factor in moral uncertainty to my decision-making, which can then lead to not wanting to bomb the planet even if one really likes a person-affecting view (EDIT: I agree with Halstead’s comment on this and think he has put the argument far better than I have)
So thanks for giving me some things to think about and I hope to see more of these in the future. For now I remain a (slightly uneasy) totalist.
Thanks for sharing Arden. I strongly upvoted because I think considering alternative views in population ethics is important and thought this write-up was interesting and clear (this applies to both your explanation of the paper and then your subsequent reaction). I’m also not sure if I ever would have got around to reading the Meacham paper myself, but I’m glad I now understand it. Overall I would be happy if you were to share similar write-ups in the future!
To give some more specific thoughts:
I found your discussion about how rejecting IIA may not be that weird in certain situations quite interesting and not something I have really considered before. Having said that I still think (counter to you) that I prefer accepting the mere addition paradox over rejecting IIA, but I now want to think about that more and it’s possible I could change my mind on this
I think I agree with your ‘ad hoc’ point about Meacham’s saturating counterpart relations. It all seems a bit contrived to me
Having said all that I don’t think I find the ‘radical implications’ counterargument compelling. I don’t really trust my intuitions on these things that much and it’s worth noting that some people don’t find the idea that ending the world may be a good thing to be counterintuitive (I actually used to feel quite strongly that it would be good!). Plus maybe there is a better way to do this than by bombing everything. Instead of rejecting things because of ‘radical implications’ I prefer to just factor in moral uncertainty to my decision-making, which can then lead to not wanting to bomb the planet even if one really likes a person-affecting view (EDIT: I agree with Halstead’s comment on this and think he has put the argument far better than I have)
So thanks for giving me some things to think about and I hope to see more of these in the future. For now I remain a (slightly uneasy) totalist.