Nice example! I still think the most reasonable objection to something like total utilitarianism is that population ethics is a matter of preferences, and my preferences are complicated. If humans prefer to set aside part of the universe as a nature preserve rather than devoting those resources to more humans, then so be it—human preferences are the only preferences we’ve got.
Nice example! I still think the most reasonable objection to something like total utilitarianism is that population ethics is a matter of preferences, and my preferences are complicated. If humans prefer to set aside part of the universe as a nature preserve rather than devoting those resources to more humans, then so be it—human preferences are the only preferences we’ve got.