Our Intuitive Grasp of the Repugnant Conclusion

Abstract

Abstract According to Total Utilitarianism, a first outcome is at least as good as a second outcome if and only if the sum total of well-being in the first is at least as great as the sum total of well-being in the second. Total Utilitarianism implies the Repugnant Conclusion, which says that, for every population consisting of ten billion people with very high well-being, there is a population consisting of a very large number of people whose existence would be better even though its members have lives that are barely worth living. The Repugnant Conclusion is counter-intuitive. But is this intuition reliable as evidence against Total Utilitarianism? A potential defense of Total Utilitarianism is that our intuition is unreliable in this case because the Repugnant Conclusion involves very large numbers. This chapter considers some earlier proposals of this kind and proposes a variation based on the idea that the unreliability of our intuition about the Repugnant Conclusion is due to a slight insensitivity in our intuitive grasp of the morally relevant factors.