Thanks! Perhaps I haven’t grasped what you’re saying. In my example, if the first virus mutates, it’ll be the one that kills more people--17 billion. If the second virus mutates, the entire human population dies at once from the virus, so only 8 billion people die in toto.
On either wide or narrow person-affecting views, it seems like we have to say that the first outcome—seven billion deaths and then ten million deaths a year for the next millennium—is worse than the second (extinction). But is that plausible? Doesn’t this example undermine person-affecting views of either kind?
Actually, I guess that on a narrow person-affecting view, the first outcome would not be worse than the second, because plausibly a pandemic of this kind would affect the identities of subsequent generations. Assuming the lives of the people who died were still worth living, while the first virus would be worse for people—because it would kill ten billion more of them—it would not, for the most part, be worse for particular people. But that seems like the wrong kind of reason to conclude that A is better than B.
Thanks! Perhaps I haven’t grasped what you’re saying. In my example, if the first virus mutates, it’ll be the one that kills more people--17 billion. If the second virus mutates, the entire human population dies at once from the virus, so only 8 billion people die in toto.
On either wide or narrow person-affecting views, it seems like we have to say that the first outcome—seven billion deaths and then ten million deaths a year for the next millennium—is worse than the second (extinction). But is that plausible? Doesn’t this example undermine person-affecting views of either kind?
Actually, I guess that on a narrow person-affecting view, the first outcome would not be worse than the second, because plausibly a pandemic of this kind would affect the identities of subsequent generations. Assuming the lives of the people who died were still worth living, while the first virus would be worse for people—because it would kill ten billion more of them—it would not, for the most part, be worse for particular people. But that seems like the wrong kind of reason to conclude that A is better than B.