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Pop­u­la­tion Ethics

TagLast edit: Mar 18, 2021, 6:45 PM by abramdemski

Population Ethics addresses the question: how should utilitarians deal with people coming in and out of existence?

For example, a classical problem in population ethics: is it overall better for a happy person to exist, if they bring down the average happiness but increase the total? Those who would answer “yes” are termed total (hedonic) utilitarians; those who would answer “no” are termed average (hedonic) utilitarians.

Note that utility is not comparable, so we cannot simply speak of “increasing average utility” vs “increasing total utility”. Hence, average utilitarianism vs total utilitarianism is not a well-defined distinction in the abstract; we have to specify e.g. hedonic utilitarianism before this distinction becomes well-defined (because average vs total happiness is a meaningful distinction).

However, although preference-utilitarians cannot necessarily make a meaningful distinction between averaging and totaling, they do not escape population-ethics dilemmas. It’s still a fair question: when is it overall preferable to bring someone into existence (or for someone to pass out of existence)? What can/​should ethics say about this?

Dem­i­na­tal­ist To­tal Utilitarianism

Vanessa KosoyApr 16, 2020, 3:53 PM
69 points
56 comments5 min readLW link

[Question] What if Ethics is Prov­ably Self-Con­tra­dic­tory?

YitzApr 18, 2024, 5:12 AM
3 points
7 comments2 min readLW link

Ac­tu­al­ism, asym­me­try and extinction

MichaelStJulesJan 7, 2025, 4:02 PM
0 points
4 comments1 min readLW link

Against neu­tral­ity about cre­at­ing happy lives

Joe CarlsmithMar 15, 2021, 1:55 AM
44 points
8 comments11 min readLW link1 review

De­bat­ing my­self on whether “ex­tra lives lived” are as good as “deaths pre­vented”

HoldenKarnofskyMar 29, 2022, 6:30 PM
34 points
9 comments15 min readLW link
(www.cold-takes.com)

Why you, per­son­ally, should want a larger hu­man population

jasoncrawfordFeb 23, 2024, 7:48 PM
32 points
32 comments5 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

Against pop­u­la­tion ethics

jasoncrawfordAug 16, 2022, 5:19 AM
29 points
39 comments3 min readLW link

[Question] Is pop­u­la­tion col­lapse due to low birth rates a prob­lem?

mukashiAug 26, 2022, 3:28 PM
6 points
36 comments1 min readLW link

UDASSA

Jacob FalkovichJan 6, 2023, 1:07 AM
21 points
8 comments10 min readLW link

Pop­u­la­tion Ethics Shouldn’t Be About Max­i­miz­ing Utility

GhatanathoahMar 18, 2013, 2:35 AM
4 points
46 comments14 min readLW link

Ex­am­ple pop­u­la­tion ethics: or­dered dis­counted utility

Stuart_ArmstrongMar 11, 2019, 4:10 PM
19 points
15 comments1 min readLW link

Com­par­ing Utilities

abramdemskiSep 14, 2020, 8:56 PM
71 points
31 comments17 min readLW link

Two kinds of pop­u­la­tion ethics, and Cur­rent-Pop­u­la­tion Utilitarianism

AlexMennenJun 17, 2014, 10:26 PM
12 points
21 comments4 min readLW link

In favour of to­tal util­i­tar­i­anism over average

casebashDec 22, 2015, 5:07 AM
0 points
15 comments4 min readLW link

Aging re­search and pop­u­la­tion ethics

emanuele ascaniApr 28, 2019, 7:21 AM
15 points
3 comments6 min readLW link

Pop­u­la­tion ethics and the value of variety

cousin_itJun 23, 2024, 10:42 AM
24 points
11 comments2 min readLW link

[Question] Math­e­mat­i­cal mod­els of Ethics

VictorsMar 8, 2023, 5:40 PM
4 points
2 comments1 min readLW link

De­mog­ra­phy and Destiny

Zero ContradictionsJul 21, 2024, 8:34 PM
6 points
11 comments1 min readLW link
(thewaywardaxolotl.blogspot.com)

[Question] The Ju­das Dilemma; What would you do

Gnostic JudasAug 14, 2024, 12:03 AM
1 point
0 comments2 min readLW link

Utili­tar­i­anism Ex­pressed in Julia

Erich_GrunewaldAug 15, 2021, 11:31 AM
12 points
0 comments12 min readLW link
(www.erichgrunewald.com)

What We Owe the Past

Austin ChenMay 5, 2022, 11:46 AM
66 points
38 comments5 min readLW link

Please Do Fight the Hypothetical

Lone PineAug 29, 2022, 8:35 AM
18 points
6 comments3 min readLW link

5. Mo­ral Value for Sen­tient An­i­mals? Alas, Not Yet

RogerDearnaleyDec 27, 2023, 6:42 AM
33 points
41 comments23 min readLW link
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