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The Repugnant Conclusion Isn't
- jfengel 4y agoI believe that they have missed Parfit's point. The problem is not just that the world is fine, but that you are forced to the conclusion that it's better than some other world in which everybody were happier -- but the population smaller. The paradox is that the world is made a better place just because it has more people in it. Anybody who was sufficiently unhappy would kill themselves, so what's left has a maximum of total happiness but every individual feeling sort of meh. This conclusion is repugnant not because it's a horrible world, but because it's merely OK and prevents striving for more happiness. You max out the planet's resources at a sustainable rate and then just stop. It's not about dystopia, but rather about going back to question the assumptions that led us here. It seems to be that the problem is the way it goes about its "more people is better than fewer people" argument, though I personally would step even further back and deny that the notion of "total happiness" is meaningful.