I do accept that a pleasurable experience is better than a neutral experience; I’m not a negative Utilitarian. I just don’t think that pleasurable experiences are preferable to nonexistence. For example, I would prefer a universe with a million happy people to a universe with a million neutral people. But, I’d be ambivalent about choosing between a universe with a million happy people and a universe with no people. (I would prefer a universe with no people to a universe with a million suffering people.)
I don’t have a “good” reason for treating positive and negative experiences asymmetrically when it comes to nonexistence—it’s simply my intuition.
I do accept that a pleasurable experience is better than a neutral experience; I’m not a negative Utilitarian. I just don’t think that pleasurable experiences are preferable to nonexistence. For example, I would prefer a universe with a million happy people to a universe with a million neutral people. But, I’d be ambivalent about choosing between a universe with a million happy people and a universe with no people. (I would prefer a universe with no people to a universe with a million suffering people.)
I don’t have a “good” reason for treating positive and negative experiences asymmetrically when it comes to nonexistence—it’s simply my intuition.