My book is out! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wyclifs-Dust-Western-cultures-printing/dp/B0B5PPXSQH/
I’m a social scientist in an economics department in Britain. Two of my interests are experimental economics and the social causes of genetic variation. I have a newsletter at https://wyclif.substack.com.
The argument isn’t that simply having more people alive is better. That’s why I spend time arguing that people’s lives are worthwhile.
I mention two intuitions. The intuition that it’s good to be alive is quite widely shared, no? Even people who claim to disagree often act as if they agree. (My uncle repeatedly said he didn’t want to live any more, yet he carefully avoided Covid.)
The intuition that people’s lives have value in themselves, and not in relation to what else is going on, isn’t just a gut feeling. It relates to the idea that what has value is consciousness—feelings of joy or contentment, say—so that if someone experiences a lifetime reasonably worth living, then that life is reasonably worth living whatever else is going on, because the experiences are the same.
You may be right that adding up utilons is crazy, but my claims don’t depend on that. Any moral framework will do, if it positively values the fact of a person leading a reasonably good life.
Lastly, I’m surprised you see any aggression here.