Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-13T21:33:17.431Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A dilemma for lexical and Archimedean views in population axiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2021

Elliott Thornley Open the ORCID record for Elliott Thornley [Opens in a new window]
Elliott Thornley*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK
*
Email: elliott.thornley@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lexical views in population axiology can avoid the Repugnant Conclusion without violating Transitivity or Separability. However, they imply a dilemma: either some good life is better than any number of slightly worse lives, or else the ‘at least as good as’ relation on populations is radically incomplete. In this paper, I argue that Archimedean views face an analogous dilemma. I thus conclude that the lexical dilemma gives us little reason to prefer Archimedean views. Even if we give up on lexicality, problems of the same kind remain.

Keywords

Population axiologylexical viewsArchimedean viewsRepugnant Conclusionincommensurability
Type
Article
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , November 2022 , pp. 395 - 415
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arrhenius, G. 2000. Future Generations: A Challenge for Moral Theory. PhD Thesis, Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Arrhenius, G. 2011. The impossibility of a satisfactory population ethics. In Descriptive and Normative Approaches to Human Behavior, ed. Dzhafarov, E.N. and Perry, L., 1–26. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Arrhenius, G. 2016. Population ethics and different-number-based imprecision. Theoria 82, 166–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arrhenius, G. Forthcoming. Population Ethics: The Challenge of Future Generations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Arrhenius, G. and Rabinowicz, W. 2005. Millian superiorities. Utilitas 17, 127–146.Google Scholar
Arrhenius, G. and Rabinowicz, W. 2015 a. The value of existence. In The Oxford Handbook of Value Theory, ed. Hirose, I. and Olson, J., 424–444. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Arrhenius, G. and Rabinowicz, W. 2015 b. Value superiority. In The Oxford Handbook of Value Theory, ed. Hirose, I. and Olson, J., 225–248. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bacon, A. 2018. Vagueness and Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D. 1996. Quasi-orderings and population ethics. Social Choice and Welfare 13, 129–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D. 2005. Population Issues in Social Choice Theory, Welfare Economics, and Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bossert, W. Forthcoming. Anonymous welfarism, critical-level principles, and the repugnant and sadistic conclusions. In The Oxford Handbook of Population Ethics, ed. Arrhenius, G., Bykvist, K., Campbell, T. and Finneron-Burns, E.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bostrom, N. 2011. Infinite ethics. Analysis and Metaphysics 10, 9–59.Google Scholar
Broome, J. 2004. Weighing Lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bykvist, K. 2007. The good, the bad and the ethically neutral. Economics and Philosophy 23, 97–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, E. 1998. Mere addition and two trilemmas of population ethics. Economics and Philosophy 14, 283–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, E. Forthcoming. On some impossibility theorems in population ethics. In The Oxford Handbook of Population Ethics, ed. Arrhenius, G., Bykvist, K., Campbell, T. and Finneron-Burns, E.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chang, R. 2002. The possibility of parity. Ethics 112, 659–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, R. 2005. Parity, interval value, and choice. Ethics 115, 331–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, R. 2016. Parity, imprecise comparability, and the repugnant conclusion. Theoria 82: 183–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Sousa, R.B. 1974. The good and the true. Mind 83, 534–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frick, J. 2017. On the survival of humanity. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 47, 344–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, J. 1988. Well-Being: Its Meaning, Measurement and Moral Importance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gustafsson, J.E. 2020. Population axiology and the possibility of a fourth category of absolute value. Economics and Philosophy 36, 81–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Handfield, T. and Rabinowicz, W. 2018. Incommensurability and vagueness in spectrum arguments: options for saving transitivity of betterness. Philosophical Studies 175, 2373–2387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurka, T. 1983. Value and population size. Ethics 93, 496–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, K.K. 2008. Millian superiorities and the repugnant conclusion. Utilitas 20, 279–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, K.K. 2020. Weak superiority, imprecise equality and the repugnant conclusion. Utilitas 32, 294–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, P. 2000. Parfit’s puzzle. Noûs 34, 550–377.Google Scholar
Knapp, C. 2007. Trading quality for quantity. Journal of Philosophical Research 32, 211–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knutsson, S. Forthcoming. Many-valued logic and sequence arguments in value theory. Synthese. https://www.simonknutsson.com/files/Many-valued_logic_sequence_arguments_value_theory.pdf.Google Scholar
Lemos, N.M. 1993. Higher goods and the myth of Tithonus. Journal of Philosophy 90, 482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nebel, J.M. 2021. Totalism without repugnance. In Ethics and Existence: The Legacy of Derek Parfit, ed. McMahan, J., Campbell, T., Goodrich, J. and Ramakrishnan, K.. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://philpapers.org/archive/NEBTWR.pdf.Google Scholar
Ng, Y.K. 1989. What should we do about future generations? Impossibility of Parfit’s theory X. Economics and Philosophy 5, 235–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parfit, D. 1984. Reasons and Persons. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Parfit, D. 1986. Overpopulation and the quality of life. In Applied Ethics, ed. Singer, P., 145–164. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Parfit, D. 2016. Can we avoid the repugnant conclusion? Theoria 82, 110–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qizilbash, M. 2005. Transitivity and vagueness. Economics and Philosophy 21, 109–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qizilbash, M. 2007. The mere addition paradox, parity and vagueness. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 75, 129–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinowicz, W. 2008. Value relations. Theoria 74, 18–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinowicz, W. 2009. Broome and the intuition of neutrality. Philosophical Issues 19, 389–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinowicz, W. 2012. Value relations revisited. Economics and Philosophy 28, 133–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinowicz, W. 2019. Can Parfit’s appeal to incommensurabilities block the continuum argument for the repugnant conclusion?’ In Studies on Climate Ethics and Future Generations, Vol. 1, ed. P. Bowman and K. Berndt Rasmussen. Working Paper Series. Stockholm: Institute for Futures Studies. https://www.iffs.se/en/publications/working-papers/studies-on-climate-ethics-and-future-generations-vol-1/.Google Scholar
Rabinowicz, W. 2020. Getting personal: the intuition of neutrality reinterpreted. In Studies on Climate Ethics and Future Generations, Vol. 2, ed. P. Bowman and K. Berndt Rasmussen. Working Paper Series. Stockholm: Institute for Futures Studies. https://www.iffs.se/en/publications/working-papers/studies-on-climate-ethics-and-future-generations-vol-2/.Google Scholar
Rachels, S. 2004. Repugnance or intransitivity: a repugnant but forced choice. In The Repugnant Conclusion: Essays on Population Ethics, ed. Ryberg, J. and Tännsjö, T., 163–186. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raz, J. 1986. Value incommensurability: some preliminaries. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 86, 117–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temkin, L.S. 2012. Rethinking the Good: Moral Ideals and the Nature of Practical Reasoning. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, T. 2018. Some possibilities in population axiology. Mind 127, 807–832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, T. Forthcoming a. Separability and population ethics. In The Oxford Handbook of Population Ethics, ed. Arrhenius, G., Bykvist, K., Campbell, T. and Finneron-Burns, E.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, T. Forthcoming b. Are spectrum arguments defused by vagueness? Australasian Journal of Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2021.1920622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornley, E. 2021. The impossibility of a satisfactory population prospect axiology (independently of finite fine-grainedness). Philosophical Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-021-01621-4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornley, E. Forthcoming. Critical levels, critical ranges, and imprecise exchange rates in population axiology. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy.Google Scholar