You can say that a death averted or delayed is a good thing without being committed to saying that a birth is a good thing. That’s the point I was trying to make.
Similarly, you can “care about people” in the sense that you think that, given that a person exists, they should have a good life, without thinking that a world with people who have good lives is better than a world with no people at all.
No you can’t. Consider three worlds, only differing with regards person A.
In world 1, U(A) = 20.
In world 2, U(A) = 10.
In world 3, U(A) = undefined, as A does not exist.
Which world is best? As we agree that people who exist should have a good life, U(1) > U(2). Assume U(2)=U(3), as per your suggest that we’re unconcerned about people’s existence/non-existence. Therefore, by transitivity of preference, U(1) > U(3). So we do care about A’s existence or non-existence.
But U(3) = U(2) doesn’t reflect what I was suggesting. There’s nothing wrong with assuming U(3) ≥ U(1). You can care about A even though you think that it would have been better if they hadn’t been born. You’re right, though, about the conclusion that it’s difficult to be unconcerned with a person’s existence. Cases of true indifference about a person’s birth will be rare.
Personally, I can imagine a world with arbitrarily happy people and it doesn’t feel better to me than a world where those people are never been born; and this doesn’t feel inconsistent. And as long as the utility I can derive from people’s happiness is bounded, it isn’t.
You can say that a death averted or delayed is a good thing without being committed to saying that a birth is a good thing. That’s the point I was trying to make.
Similarly, you can “care about people” in the sense that you think that, given that a person exists, they should have a good life, without thinking that a world with people who have good lives is better than a world with no people at all.
No you can’t. Consider three worlds, only differing with regards person A.
In world 1, U(A) = 20.
In world 2, U(A) = 10.
In world 3, U(A) = undefined, as A does not exist.
Which world is best? As we agree that people who exist should have a good life, U(1) > U(2). Assume U(2)=U(3), as per your suggest that we’re unconcerned about people’s existence/non-existence. Therefore, by transitivity of preference, U(1) > U(3). So we do care about A’s existence or non-existence.
But U(3) = U(2) doesn’t reflect what I was suggesting. There’s nothing wrong with assuming U(3) ≥ U(1). You can care about A even though you think that it would have been better if they hadn’t been born. You’re right, though, about the conclusion that it’s difficult to be unconcerned with a person’s existence. Cases of true indifference about a person’s birth will be rare.
Personally, I can imagine a world with arbitrarily happy people and it doesn’t feel better to me than a world where those people are never been born; and this doesn’t feel inconsistent. And as long as the utility I can derive from people’s happiness is bounded, it isn’t.
U(2)=U(3) isn’t “a world with people who have good lives is not better than a world with no people at all”. That would be U(1)=U(3).