Q5: Parfit

Question 1

Partfit’s birth case

Answer 1

Wilma can either conceive a child now, but it will be born with some severe disability (Pebbles), or she can take a pill, wait a month, and conceive of a perfectly healthy child (Rocks). As not to delay childbearing, she chooses to conceive the child now.

Question 2

Parfit’s Non-Identity Argument

Answer 2

1. An act is wrong only if it wrongs someone.
2. An act wrongs someone only if it harms someone.
3. An act harms someone only if the performance of that act makes someone worse off than they would have been had that act not been performed.
4. Neither conceiving Pebbles nor choosing Depletion makes anyone worse off than they would have been had the alternative act been performed.
5. So, neither conceiving Pebbles nor choosing Depletion is wrong.

Question 3

Defense of Parfit’s Argument

Answer 3

P1 and P2 are intuitive claims. P3 can be motivated by different theories of what harm is

Question 4

Temporal Comparativism:

Answer 4

An act harms someone iff the performance of that act makes someone worse off than they were before the act was performed.

Question 5

Counterfactual Comparativism:

Answer 5

An act harms someone iff the performance of that act makes someone worse off than they would have been had that act not been performed.

Question 6

Non-Comparativism:

Answer 6

An act harms someone iff the performance of that act causes someone to be in an intrinsically bad state.

Question 7

Objection to Temporal Comparitivism

Answer 7

Intuitively, death is the greatest of harms. But, when you are dead, you do not exist, so it is not possible for you to be worse off than you were prior to death. You are no longer in any state. Thus, temporal comparativism cannot be right.

Question 8

Objection to non-comparitivism

Answer 8

Take a case of a super-genius having a stroke. After they recover from the stroke, they are at a slightly higher than average level of intelligence. This is not an intrinsically bad state to be in, though that stroke victim has still been harmed. Thus, non-comparativism cannot be correct.

Question 9

Counterfactual comparitivism works

Answer 9

Counterfactual comparativism seems to support our intuition that the stroke patient has been harmed, the terminally ill patient is better off, and that conceiving Pebbles was wrong.

Question 10

Objection to Counterfactual comparitivism

Answer 10

anti-natalism.