Also, the phrase “barely worth living” is evocative in ways that are not useful. It is much clearer to to reword this statement in its more general form : “barely meeting the criteria for me valuing them.”
This is likely an important crux. I have yet to see a believable theory of relative value of lives or moments across agents. “barely meeting my value criteria” is probably not the same as “barely worth living”. But it’s the only proxy I have that makes any sense.
“minimal-sized qualifying soul” is exactly as repugnant as “large soul, minimally satisfied” to me. And I even acknowledge that the model of size/desire of agents independent of their value isn’t necessarily coherent, let alone true.
This is likely an important crux. I have yet to see a believable theory of relative value of lives or moments across agents. “barely meeting my value criteria” is probably not the same as “barely worth living”. But it’s the only proxy I have that makes any sense.
“minimal-sized qualifying soul” is exactly as repugnant as “large soul, minimally satisfied” to me. And I even acknowledge that the model of size/desire of agents independent of their value isn’t necessarily coherent, let alone true.