Knowra Population ethics Population ethics Population ethics studies how to evaluate outcomes that differ in the number, identities, or wellbeing of people who exist. It examines how choices affecting future populations should be compared.
Interpersonal comparison of utility : The problem of comparing how well different people fare using a common measure of welfare. Population judgments often compare wellbeing across people who may never share an existence.
Total utilitarianism : The view that an outcome's value is the sum of the wellbeing of everyone who exists in it. It straightforwardly favors adding lives with positive wellbeing, even when those lives are barely worth living.
Derek Parfit : An English philosopher whose work on identity, rationality, and future generations reshaped moral philosophy. His analysis made population comparisons a central challenge for consequentialist ethics.
Non-identity problem : The problem that choices can determine which people exist, leaving some harmed people unable to say they would have been better off otherwise. It challenges ordinary accounts of harm when policies alter the identities of future people.
Person-affecting view : The view that an outcome is better or worse only insofar as it is better or worse for particular people. It offers a direct alternative to ranking populations by total or average welfare.
Average utilitarianism : The view that an outcome's value depends on the average wellbeing of its population. It can rank a smaller, happier population above a larger one with greater total wellbeing.
Reasons and Persons : Derek Parfit’s 1984 book on personal identity, rationality, and obligations to future people. Its final part develops the non-identity problem and the repugnant conclusion.
Climate change ethics : The ethical study of responsibilities and harms associated with human-caused climate change. Climate policies can alter the timing, circumstances, and identities of future populations.
Personal identity : The conditions under which a person remains the same individual over time or across possible circumstances. Choices can change which future individuals exist, complicating claims about who is harmed.
Critical-level utilitarianism : A population-ranking theory that counts each life’s welfare relative to a fixed critical level. It modifies total welfare by allowing lives below a threshold to reduce an outcome’s value.
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