Hi Kevin,
Thanks so much, this quasi-sociological perspective is quite helpful.
One thing that puzzles me is the role of intuition in this context. A few people have responded to the repugnant conclusion by saying that animals in CAFOs, even in cage-free poultry systems, have negative welfare. But that’s not borne out by the empirical research on the topic. In my view, it’s largely an unverified assumption, or intuition. That seems to run against the general project of “using reason and evidence to do the most good”.
Similar tensions seemed apparent to me in what you write about stances of some effective altruists. You say that many EAs want to rely on reason rather than intuition, and don’t consider their own moral intuitions trustworthy. But then you also say that they “consider consequentialism the strongest perspective to take — perhaps because they find it least counterintuitive.” So, the acceptance of consequentialism itself is based on intuition.
The use of intuitions appears to be quite selective and arbitrary, when it serves prior commitments or helps to insulate parts of the worldview against objections.
Vera
I take it this is a question for Jacob, right? I’ll just chime in with one thought. - I think the comparison to wildlife suffering is relevant here too. Most wild animals live short lives and die of starvation, predation, disease of exposure. If the bar for net zero welfare is too high, it appears that one would be either pressed to drastically intervene and turn ecosystems upside down to avoid this suffering, or to eliminate all wildlife.