I also think they are probably wrong, but this kind of argument is a substantial part of why. So I want to see if they can be rescued from it, since that would affect their probability of being right from my perspective.
Do you think there are more compelling arguments that they are wrong, such that we need not consider ones like this? (Also just curious)
for example see fig. 2 and related argument. Basically, you have 3 worlds (A;B;C), with populations ([x,y];[y,z];[z,x]). You set the welfare of the populations such that
“Assume that all of these people have positive welfare, but that the y people are better off in B as compared to A, the z people are better off in C as compared to B, and the x people are better off in A as compared to C.
Since the x people do not exist in B, B is neither worse nor better than A for them. Similarly, since the z people do not exist in A, A is neither worse nor better than B for them. However, B is better than A for the y people. Consequently, B is better than A according to the second clause of the Person Affecting Restriction. The same reasoning yields that C is better than B, and A is better than C. But if B is better than A, and C is better than B, then transitivity yields that C is better than A. Consequently, C is both better and worse than A.”
So you would have to sacrifice transitivity to “rescue” PAW.
Another argument may be from physics—according to many-worlds interpretation of QM, there exists a world where I was not born, because some high energy particle damaged a part of DNA necessary for my birth. Hence, for each person there exists a world where he does not exists. Taken ad absurdum, nobody has moral value.
I’m not sure if “wrong”, “incoherent”, or just “incomplete”, but this is one major hole in strict person-affecting views. When comparing two future universes, are you disallowed from having a preference if NEITHER of them contains any entity (or consciousness-path or whatever you say is “person” across time) from the current universe? 200 years from now has ZERO person-overlap with now. Does that mean nothing matters?
I also think they are probably wrong, but this kind of argument is a substantial part of why. So I want to see if they can be rescued from it, since that would affect their probability of being right from my perspective.
Do you think there are more compelling arguments that they are wrong, such that we need not consider ones like this? (Also just curious)
I think this is quite devastating analysis for them, even if you would take a “person” to be well defined object.
The Person-Affecting Restriction, Comparativism, and the Moral Status of Potential People, by Gustaf Arrhenius
for example see fig. 2 and related argument. Basically, you have 3 worlds (A;B;C), with populations ([x,y];[y,z];[z,x]). You set the welfare of the populations such that
So you would have to sacrifice transitivity to “rescue” PAW.
Another argument may be from physics—according to many-worlds interpretation of QM, there exists a world where I was not born, because some high energy particle damaged a part of DNA necessary for my birth. Hence, for each person there exists a world where he does not exists. Taken ad absurdum, nobody has moral value.
I’m not sure if “wrong”, “incoherent”, or just “incomplete”, but this is one major hole in strict person-affecting views. When comparing two future universes, are you disallowed from having a preference if NEITHER of them contains any entity (or consciousness-path or whatever you say is “person” across time) from the current universe? 200 years from now has ZERO person-overlap with now. Does that mean nothing matters?