Does the total principle have any repugnant implications?

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

On the Total Principle, the best state of affairs (ceteris paribus) is the one with the greatest net sum of welfare value. Parfit rejects this principle, because he believes that it implies the Repugnant Conclusion, the conclusion that for any large population of people, all with lives well worth living, there will be some much larger population whose existence would be better, even though its members all have lives that are only barely worth living. Recently, however, a number of philosophers have suggested that the Total Principle does not imply the Repugnant Conclusion provided that a certain axiological view (namely, the 'Discontinuity View') is correct. Nevertheless, as I point out, there are three different versions of the Repugnant Conclusion, and it appears that the Total Principle will imply two of the three even if the Discontinuity View is correct. I then go on to argue that one of the two remaining versions turns out not to be repugnant after all. Second, I argue that the last remaining version is not, as it turns out, implied by the Total Principle. Thus, my arguments show that the Total Principle has no repugnant implications.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)80-98
Number of pages19
JournalRatio
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1999
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Does the total principle have any repugnant implications?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this