I think the difference between “Lives worth living” and “Lives worth celebrating” is basically a difference between “I opt to not mercy-kill this person.” and “I opt to bring this person into existence”—the precise levels of happiness/utility required are of course subjective, but the latter is generally considered to be higher than the former...
The main reason I don’t kill miserable people in the real world (other than ethical injunctions) is that it would sadden/have negative externalities on other people. ISTM that certain thoughts experiments yield preposterous results as a result of neglecting this.
The question asks if you opt to bring 99,999 people into existence. Adding the assmption that it is worth to bring those people into existence would beg the question.
Yeah, my formulation of this was a bit clumsy. Perhaps instead of a1) “I opt to not mercy-kill this person.” and b1) “I opt to bring this person into existence” we could have a2) “I prefer it that this person continues living.” and b2) “I prefer that this person existed in the first place from the counterfactual in which they never existed.”
This detaches slightly the decision (the verb “opt”) from the statement-of-preferences.
Also even with the earlier formulation, there are I guess, nitpicks which can be made: bringing the same person in existence 99,999 times may not be valued in the same way that bringing 99,999 different persons into existence would.
I think the difference between “Lives worth living” and “Lives worth celebrating” is basically a difference between “I opt to not mercy-kill this person.” and “I opt to bring this person into existence”—the precise levels of happiness/utility required are of course subjective, but the latter is generally considered to be higher than the former...
The main reason I don’t kill miserable people in the real world (other than ethical injunctions) is that it would sadden/have negative externalities on other people. ISTM that certain thoughts experiments yield preposterous results as a result of neglecting this.
The question asks if you opt to bring 99,999 people into existence. Adding the assmption that it is worth to bring those people into existence would beg the question.
Yeah, my formulation of this was a bit clumsy. Perhaps instead of
a1) “I opt to not mercy-kill this person.” and
b1) “I opt to bring this person into existence”
we could have
a2) “I prefer it that this person continues living.” and
b2) “I prefer that this person existed in the first place from the counterfactual in which they never existed.”
This detaches slightly the decision (the verb “opt”) from the statement-of-preferences.
Also even with the earlier formulation, there are I guess, nitpicks which can be made: bringing the same person in existence 99,999 times may not be valued in the same way that bringing 99,999 different persons into existence would.
No, as you’d also be taking your current life as a person-better-off-than-a-subsistence-farmer out of existence.