Description
Population ethics challenges moral theories we previously considered compelling and throws into relief the practical problems--including those relating to climate change and procreative privacy--moral agents all face. Population ethics has thus emerged in recent years as among the most significant areas in moral philosophy. M. A. Roberts introduces the newcomer to population ethics while at the same time investigating the key issues in a way that will be of interest to professional philosophers, economists, and lawyers seeking to understand what a cogent, plausible theory of population will look like. Roberts avoids the method of presenting a theory and then applying that theory to stock problem cases. Rather, she invites the reader to work through five perplexing but riveting puzzles each rooted in the question whether bringing additional people into existence--on its own--makes the world morally better. Each of her "existence puzzles"--the Asymmetry Puzzle, the Pareto Puzzle, the Addition Puzzle, the Anonymity Puzzle, and the Better Chance Puzzle--either already is or shall soon become a critically important part of the population ethics literature. Roberts proposes solutions to the puzzles that together form a partial theory of population, a collection of principles grounded in intuition but highly sensitive to the formal demands of consistency and cogency.
Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsDedicationList of accepted principles and rejected principlesLists of figuresPrefaceChapter 1: Recent history and current perplexed state of population ethics1.1 Population variability and the inquiry into existential status1.2 The case of Jaime versus Harry 1.3 A quick turn back to traditional total view1.4 More than one way to maximize: maximizing on the aggregate; maximizing on the individual 1.5 Are hormones to blame?1.6 Conceptual necessities also puzzle pieces; more inventive approaches on hold1.7 The puzzle method; the role of intuition; the off ramp 1.8 Connection thesis; accessibility relation1.9 Five existence puzzlesChapter 2: The Asymmetry Puzzle2.1 The miserable child case and the happy child case2.2 The puzzle2.3 Attempts to solve the puzzle that go nowhere2.4 The existence-sensitive solution to the asymmetry2.5 Objections and replies Chapter 3: The Pareto puzzle3.1 The three option case3.2 The puzzle3.3 Attempts to solve the puzzle by tossing out some of the puzzle pieces3.4 The Pareto minus solution to the Pareto puzzle3.5 Objection and reply: Doesn't the Pareto minus solution violate the independence of irrelevant alternatives?Chapter 4: The Addition Puzzle4.1 The puzzle4.2 Why we love addition4.3 Inversive existence-sensitive solution to the addition puzzle4.4 Objection and reply: Isn't inversive existence-sensitive addition circular?4.5 Applications of inversive existence-sensitive addition 4.6 Wouldn't it be simpler to "minimize aggregate complaints"? Chapter 5: The Anonymity Puzzle5.1 The case of simple addition and reversal5.2 The case of indefinitely iterated addition and reversal; the puzzle 5.3 When the cures are worse than the disease5.4 Identity-sensitive solution to the anonymity puzzle5.5 Objections and replies Chapter 6: The Better Chance Puzzle 6.1 Probability questions6.2 Expected value: the wrong way to make a wrong a right6.3 Probable value: a better way to make a wrong a right6.4 Objections and repliesChapter 7: Person-based consequentialism and a New Way of Doing the Best We Can Appendix A: Nonexistence ComparabilityAppendix B: The Loss Distinction Thesis Appendix C: Broome on the Neutrality Intuition IndexBibliography
