But the Repugnant Conclusion is wrong. People who don’t exist have no interest in existing; they don’t have any interests, because they don’t exist. To make the world a better place means making it a better place for people who already exist. If you add a new person to that pool of ‘people who exist’, then of course making the world a better place means making it a better place for that person as well. But there’s no reason to go around adding imaginary babies (as in the example from part one of the linked article) to that pool for the sake of increasing total happiness. It’s average happiness on a personal level—not total happiness—which makes people happy, and making people happy is sort of the whole point of ‘making the world a better place’. Or else why bother?
To be honest, the entire Repugnant Conclusion article felt a little silly to me.
But the Repugnant Conclusion is wrong. People who don’t exist have no interest in existing; they don’t have any interests, because they don’t exist. To make the world a better place means making it a better place for people who already exist. If you add a new person to that pool of ‘people who exist’, then of course making the world a better place means making it a better place for that person as well. But there’s no reason to go around adding imaginary babies (as in the example from part one of the linked article) to that pool for the sake of increasing total happiness. It’s average happiness on a personal level—not total happiness—which makes people happy, and making people happy is sort of the whole point of ‘making the world a better place’. Or else why bother? To be honest, the entire Repugnant Conclusion article felt a little silly to me.