And we can turn this into a wide person-affecting view to solve the Nonidentity problem by claiming that identity doesn’t matter. To make the above argument fit better with this, we can rephrase it slightly to refer to “extra individuals” or “no extra individuals” rather than any specific individuals who will or won’t exist. Frick makes a separate general claim that if exactly one of two normative standards (e.g. people, with interests) will exist, and they are standards of the same kind (e.g. the extent to which people’s interests are satisfied can be compared), then it’s better for the one which will be better satisfied to apply (e.g. the better off person should come to exist).
On the other hand, a narrow view might still allow us to say that it’s worse to bring a worse off individual into existence with a bad life than a better off one, if our reasons against bringing an individual into existence with a bad life are stronger the worse off they would be, a claim I’d expect to be widely accepted. If we apply the view to individual experiences or person-moments, the result seems to be a negative axiology, in which only the negative matters, on, and with hedonism, only suffering would matter. Whether or not this follows can depend on how the procreation asymmetry is captured, and there are systems in which it would not follow, e.g. the narrow asymmetric views here, although these reject the independence of irrelevant alternatives.
Under standard order assumptions which include the independence of irrelevant alternatives and completeness, the procreation asymmetry does imply a negative axiology.
And we can turn this into a wide person-affecting view to solve the Nonidentity problem by claiming that identity doesn’t matter. To make the above argument fit better with this, we can rephrase it slightly to refer to “extra individuals” or “no extra individuals” rather than any specific individuals who will or won’t exist. Frick makes a separate general claim that if exactly one of two normative standards (e.g. people, with interests) will exist, and they are standards of the same kind (e.g. the extent to which people’s interests are satisfied can be compared), then it’s better for the one which will be better satisfied to apply (e.g. the better off person should come to exist).
On the other hand, a narrow view might still allow us to say that it’s worse to bring a worse off individual into existence with a bad life than a better off one, if our reasons against bringing an individual into existence with a bad life are stronger the worse off they would be, a claim I’d expect to be widely accepted. If we apply the view to individual experiences or person-moments, the result seems to be a negative axiology, in which only the negative matters, on, and with hedonism, only suffering would matter. Whether or not this follows can depend on how the procreation asymmetry is captured, and there are systems in which it would not follow, e.g. the narrow asymmetric views here, although these reject the independence of irrelevant alternatives.
Under standard order assumptions which include the independence of irrelevant alternatives and completeness, the procreation asymmetry does imply a negative axiology.