I think IIA is more intuitive when you’re considering only the personal (self-regarding) preferences of a single individual like in your example, but even if IIA holds for each individual in a group, it need not for the group, especially when different people would exist, because these situations involve different interests. I think this is also plausibly true for all accounts of welfare or interests (maybe suitably modified), even hedonistic, since if someone never exists, they don’t have welfare or interests at all, which need not mean the same thing as welfare level 0.
If you find the (very) repugnant conclusion counterintuitive, this might be a sign that you’re stretching your intuition from this simple case too far.
I think IIA is more intuitive when you’re considering only the personal (self-regarding) preferences of a single individual like in your example, but even if IIA holds for each individual in a group, it need not for the group, especially when different people would exist, because these situations involve different interests. I think this is also plausibly true for all accounts of welfare or interests (maybe suitably modified), even hedonistic, since if someone never exists, they don’t have welfare or interests at all, which need not mean the same thing as welfare level 0.
If you find the (very) repugnant conclusion counterintuitive, this might be a sign that you’re stretching your intuition from this simple case too far.