ethics & morality · new to this edition
the repugnant conclusion
four small steps that each seem fine, and a destination almost nobody wants.
In 1984 Derek Parfit asked a question that sounds like arithmetic: is a bigger population with a lower quality of life ever better than a smaller, happier one? He did not set out to prove anything shocking. He just made a series of steps, each of which seems entirely reasonable, and followed them. Walk it with him, and mark where your own intuitions start to resist.
further reading
- the repugnant conclusion stanford encyclopedia of philosophy
- reasons and persons wikipedia
- mere addition paradox wikipedia