Executive summary: The author presents several arguments against person-affecting views in population ethics, concluding that creating happy people is good and creating happier people is better.
Key points:
If person-affecting views are true, the EA community may be spending too much on reducing existential risk. If false, much more should be spent.
The simple argument against person-affecting views says creating happy people brings more good things into the world. Classic responses to this argument lead to other counterintuitive conclusions.
Tomi Francis provides two additional arguments showing that creating happy people is good and creating happier people is better.
Narrow person-affecting views face a trilemma in the author’s Expanded Non-Identity case, with each option leading to an implausible implication.
Wide person-affecting views make permissibility depend on seemingly irrelevant factors in the author’s Two-Shot Non-Identity sequential choice case.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The author presents several arguments against person-affecting views in population ethics, concluding that creating happy people is good and creating happier people is better.
Key points:
If person-affecting views are true, the EA community may be spending too much on reducing existential risk. If false, much more should be spent.
The simple argument against person-affecting views says creating happy people brings more good things into the world. Classic responses to this argument lead to other counterintuitive conclusions.
Tomi Francis provides two additional arguments showing that creating happy people is good and creating happier people is better.
Narrow person-affecting views face a trilemma in the author’s Expanded Non-Identity case, with each option leading to an implausible implication.
Wide person-affecting views make permissibility depend on seemingly irrelevant factors in the author’s Two-Shot Non-Identity sequential choice case.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.