To someone who already rejects Mere Addition, the Sadistic Conclusion is only a small cost, since if it’s bad to add some lives with (seemingly) positive welfare, then it’s a small step to accept that it can sometimes be worse to add lives with negative welfare over lives with positive welfare.
The question is whether one should accept some variety of CU or NU antecedently of any theoretical commitments to either. Naturally, if one is already committed to some aspects of NU, committing to further aspects of it will incur a relatively smaller cost, but that’s only because the remaining costs have already been incurred.
The question is whether one should accept some variety of CU or NU antecedently of any theoretical commitments to either. Naturally, if one is already committed to some aspects of NU, committing to further aspects of it will incur a relatively smaller cost, but that’s only because the remaining costs have already been incurred.