That doesn’t seem true to me (see MichaelPlant’s comment).
Also, there’s a selection effect in academic moral philosophy where people who don’t find the concept of “intrinsic value” / “the ethical value of a life” compelling won’t go on to write paper after paper about it. For instance, David Heyd wrote one of the earliest books on “population ethics” (the book was called “Genethics” but the term didn’t catch on) and argued that it’s maybe “outside the scope of ethics.” Once you said that, there isn’t a lot else to say. Similarly, according to this comment by peterhartree, Bernard Williams also has issues with the way other philosophers approach population ethics. He argues for his position of reasons anti-realism, which says that there’s no perspective external to people’s subjective reasons for action that has the authority to tell us how to live.
If you want an accurate count on philosophers’ views on population ethics, you have to throw the net wide to include people who looked at the field, considered that it’s a bit confused because of reasons anti-realism, and then moved on rather than repeating arguments for reasons anti-realism. (The latter would be a bit boring because you’d conclude by saying something like “different positions on population ethics are similarly defensible – it depends on what people care to emphasize.”)
That doesn’t seem true to me (see MichaelPlant’s comment).
Also, there’s a selection effect in academic moral philosophy where people who don’t find the concept of “intrinsic value” / “the ethical value of a life” compelling won’t go on to write paper after paper about it. For instance, David Heyd wrote one of the earliest books on “population ethics” (the book was called “Genethics” but the term didn’t catch on) and argued that it’s maybe “outside the scope of ethics.” Once you said that, there isn’t a lot else to say. Similarly, according to this comment by peterhartree, Bernard Williams also has issues with the way other philosophers approach population ethics. He argues for his position of reasons anti-realism, which says that there’s no perspective external to people’s subjective reasons for action that has the authority to tell us how to live.
If you want an accurate count on philosophers’ views on population ethics, you have to throw the net wide to include people who looked at the field, considered that it’s a bit confused because of reasons anti-realism, and then moved on rather than repeating arguments for reasons anti-realism. (The latter would be a bit boring because you’d conclude by saying something like “different positions on population ethics are similarly defensible – it depends on what people care to emphasize.”)