However, even if we’d show that the repugnance of the repugnant conclusion is influenced in these ways or even rendered unreliable, I doubt the same would be true for the “very repugnant conclusion”:
for any world A with billions of happy people living wonderful lives, there is a world Z+ containing both a vast amount of mildly-satisfied lizards and billions of suffering people, such that Z+ is better than A.
(Credit to joe carlsmith who mentioned this on some podcast)
It seems plausible that the framing effect could be at play here, and that different people would draw the line between a life that’s worth living and one that’s not at different points. I don’t know about any literature about this, but maybe I’d give a look at the Happier Lives Institute’s work.
And I’ll need to think more seriously about the very repugnant conclusion. That’s a tough one!
However, even if we’d show that the repugnance of the repugnant conclusion is influenced in these ways or even rendered unreliable, I doubt the same would be true for the “very repugnant conclusion”:
for any world A with billions of happy people living wonderful lives, there is a world Z+ containing both a vast amount of mildly-satisfied lizards and billions of suffering people, such that Z+ is better than A.
(Credit to joe carlsmith who mentioned this on some podcast)
You raised some interesting points!
It seems plausible that the framing effect could be at play here, and that different people would draw the line between a life that’s worth living and one that’s not at different points. I don’t know about any literature about this, but maybe I’d give a look at the Happier Lives Institute’s work.
And I’ll need to think more seriously about the very repugnant conclusion. That’s a tough one!