Note that your statement does not contradict the Mere Addition Paradox.
You’re right. It doesn’t contradict it 100%. A world a trillion people with lives barely worth living might still be better than a world with a thousand people with great lives. However, it could well be worse than a world with half a trillion people with great lives.
What my theory primarily deals with is finding the optimal, world, the world that converts resources into utility most efficiently. I believe that a world with a moderately sized population with a high standard of living is the best world, all other things being equal.
However, you are quite correct that the Mere Addition Paradox could still apply if all things are not equal. A world with vastly more resources than the first one that converts all of its resources into building a titanic population of lives barely worth living might be better if its population is huge enough, because it might produce a greater amount of value in total, even if is less optimal (that is, it converts resources into value less efficiently). However, a world with the same amount of resources as that has a somewhat smaller population and a higher standard of living would be both better and more optimal.
So I think that my statement does contradict the Mere Addition Paradox in ceteris parabis situations, even if it doesn’t in situation where all things aren’t equal. And I think that’s something.
No. Your statement does not contradict the Mere Addition Paradox, even in, as you say, “ceteris paribus situations”. This is really a matter of first-order logic.
You’re right. It doesn’t contradict it 100%. A world a trillion people with lives barely worth living might still be better than a world with a thousand people with great lives. However, it could well be worse than a world with half a trillion people with great lives.
What my theory primarily deals with is finding the optimal, world, the world that converts resources into utility most efficiently. I believe that a world with a moderately sized population with a high standard of living is the best world, all other things being equal.
However, you are quite correct that the Mere Addition Paradox could still apply if all things are not equal. A world with vastly more resources than the first one that converts all of its resources into building a titanic population of lives barely worth living might be better if its population is huge enough, because it might produce a greater amount of value in total, even if is less optimal (that is, it converts resources into value less efficiently). However, a world with the same amount of resources as that has a somewhat smaller population and a higher standard of living would be both better and more optimal.
So I think that my statement does contradict the Mere Addition Paradox in ceteris parabis situations, even if it doesn’t in situation where all things aren’t equal. And I think that’s something.
No. Your statement does not contradict the Mere Addition Paradox, even in, as you say, “ceteris paribus situations”. This is really a matter of first-order logic.