Population Ethics

Population Ethics

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Ord, The Precipice, Appendix B (6 pages) - Discusses how different views on population ethics could yield different conclusions about the importance of existential threats. Describes how preventing existential threats is a priority under a variety of ethical frameworks.
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Greaves, Population axiology - A survey paper on different theories in population ethics.
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The problem with person-affecting views - a short EA forum post describing an unintuitive conclusion of person-affecting views in population ethics.
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Kagan, “Singer on Killing Animals”, p. 141 - p. 145 (5 pages) - Discusses population ethics in the context of animal welfare. Introduces several concepts relevant to population ethics.
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Parfit, Reasons and Persons, Chapters 16-18, and Appendix G (70 pages) - Describes several problems that arise when trying to imagine an ideal future population. Also presents interesting thought experiments about identity, ethical frameworks, and comparisons between populations of different sizes.
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Boonin, “How to Solve the Non-Identity Problem” (30 pages) - Explores the non-identity problem: the fact that our actions will affect not only the well-being of future people but also the identities of those future people.
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Harman, “Can We Harm and Benefit in Creating?” (25 pages) - Proposes a solution to the non-identity problem by relying on reasons against harm.
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McMahan, “Climate Change, War, and the Non-Identity Problem” (27 pages) - Discusses how the non-identity problem can affect the way we understand the ethics of climate change.
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On The Overwhelming Importance Of Shaping The Far Future, Chapter 4 (23 pages) - Discusses different types of person-affecting views and how they might influence the ethics of longtermism.

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