While I don’t necessarily agree with Matty’s view that total utilitarianism is wrong, I think this comment highlights a key distinction between a) improving the lives of future people and b) bringing lives into existance.
The examples in this post are really useful to show that future people matter, but they don’t show that we should bring people into existance. For example, if future people were going to live unhappy lives, it would still be good to do things that prevent their lives from being worse (e.g. improve education, prevent climate change, pick up glass), but this doesn’t necessarily imply we should try to bring those unhappy people into existance (which may have been Josh’s concern, if I understand correctly).
While I don’t necessarily agree with Matty’s view that total utilitarianism is wrong, I think this comment highlights a key distinction between a) improving the lives of future people and b) bringing lives into existance.
The examples in this post are really useful to show that future people matter, but they don’t show that we should bring people into existance. For example, if future people were going to live unhappy lives, it would still be good to do things that prevent their lives from being worse (e.g. improve education, prevent climate change, pick up glass), but this doesn’t necessarily imply we should try to bring those unhappy people into existance (which may have been Josh’s concern, if I understand correctly).