One can also have a population ethic that is neither total nor person affecting. I can have a value function that is concave in the number of people existing going forward and some measure of how happy they are. I can also heavily weight suffering even if I have a total view.
As to your claim, I’m not sure what the data is. My impression is that maybe about half the EA people who have thought about it have a view other than total utilitarianism, and a larger share have some doubts about it, some moral uncertainty.
I also think that the fact that ‘pronatalism’ is not a big EA cause suggests people aren’t fully on board with the total view?
But I have a vague sense that people are working on some survey/opinion research on this? It might be an interesting question to poll EAs on in some way.
And of course, obviously the share of people (even EAs) who believe something doesn’t determine its rightness
One can also have a population ethic that is neither total nor person affecting. I can have a value function that is concave in the number of people existing going forward and some measure of how happy they are. I can also heavily weight suffering even if I have a total view.
As to your claim, I’m not sure what the data is. My impression is that maybe about half the EA people who have thought about it have a view other than total utilitarianism, and a larger share have some doubts about it, some moral uncertainty.
I also think that the fact that ‘pronatalism’ is not a big EA cause suggests people aren’t fully on board with the total view?
But I have a vague sense that people are working on some survey/opinion research on this? It might be an interesting question to poll EAs on in some way.
And of course, obviously the share of people (even EAs) who believe something doesn’t determine its rightness