scholarly journals Why Derek Parfit had reasons to accept the Repugnant Conclusion

Utilitas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-397
Author(s):  
Torbjörn Tännsjö
Keyword(s):  
Derek Parfit ◽  
Repugnant Conclusion ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Total View

AbstractTotal views imply what Derek Parfit has called ‘the repugnant conclusion’. There are several strategies aimed at debunking the intuition that this implication is repugnant. In particular, it goes away when we consider the principle of unrestricted instantiation, according to which any instantiation of the repugnant conclusion must appear repugnant if we should be warranted in relying on it as evidence against total theories. However, there are instantiations of the conclusion where it doesn't seem to be at all repugnant. Hence there is nothing repugnant about the repugnant conclusion as such. The faults with total views have nothing to do with large numbers or with the conclusion as such. It is possible, if you like, to correct these putative faults even if you adopt some total view (different from utilitarianism).

scholarly journals Who Cares? ―The COVID-19 Pandemic, Global Heating and the Future of Humanity1

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Torbjörn Tännsjö
Keyword(s):  
Great Length ◽  
Repugnant Conclusion ◽  
Happy Life ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Total View ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Global Government ◽  
Common Future ◽  
Global Heating

The COVID-19 pandemic has engendered unprecedented drastic and costly measures to obviate the threat. Will something similar happen in relation to global heating? No, this is not likely. Mainly this has to do with a difference in the nature of collective action. Nation states protect their respective populations against the virus. With regard to global heating, we are facing the tragedy of the commons. No global government assumes responsibility for our common future. However, there may be another and further explanation lurking behind political inaction: many people, including our politicians, think that it does not matter if humanity goes extinct. It does matter, however. Strangely enough, the view that it matters is questioned by many important philosophers in the past and in the present, and it is hence controversial. Yet, it should be our common-sense stance to the problem. It is of the utmost importance that there will be sentient happy life on the globe for an indefinite time. Theoretically speaking, in order to recognize this, we need to accept some “total” view, implying what has been called the repugnant conclusion. Practically speaking, we should go to great length to rescue our human civilisation, even if this means that, for a while, we must endure all sorts of hardships such as a global enlightened despotism, or worse—a situation of life boat ethics.

Why We Ought to Accept the Repugnant Conclusion

Utilitas ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjorn Tannsjo
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Derek Parfit ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Repugnant Conclusion ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Hedonistic Utilitarianism ◽  
Sentient Beings ◽  
Very High

Derek Parfit has famously pointed out that ‘total’ utilitarian views, such as classical hedonistic utilitarianism, lead to the conclusion that, to each population of quite happy persons there corresponds a more extensive population with people living lives just worth living, which is (on the whole) better. In particular, for any possible population of at least ten billion people, all with a very high quality of life, there must be some much larger imaginable population whose existence, if other things are equal, would be better, even though its members have lives that are barely worth living. This world is better if the sum total of well-being is great enough, and it is great enough if only enough sentient beings inhabit it. This conclusion has been considered by Parfit and others to be ‘repugnant’.

Justice, Desert, and the Repugnant Conclusion

Utilitas ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Derek Parfit ◽  
Repugnant Conclusion ◽  
The World ◽  
Franz Brentano ◽  
Plausible Answer ◽  
Satisfactory Answer

In Chapter 17 of his magnificent Reasons and Persons, Derek Parfit asks what he describes as an ‘awesome question’: ‘How many people should there ever be?’ For a utilitarian like me, the answer seems simple: there should be however many people it takes to make the world best. Unfortunately, if I answer Parfit's awesome question in this way, I may sink myself in a quagmire of axiological confusion. In this paper, I first describe certain aspects of the quagmire. Then I introduce and explain some of the elements of a novel axiological view – ‘justicism’. Justicism is derived from some ideas originally suggested by Franz Brentano. It was developed in an effort to solve certain other problems confronting utilitarianism – problems explicitly about justice. I think, however, that as a sort of happy by-product, justicism also generates a plausible answer to Parfit's awesome question. This may come as a bit of surprise, since justicism is a form of totalism, and it is widely thought that no totalistic theory can provide a satisfactory answer to Parfit's question. After presenting and explaining my proposed solution, I address some objections.

Weak Superiority, Imprecise Equality and the Repugnant Conclusion

Utilitas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-315
Author(s):  
Karsten Klint Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Derek Parfit ◽  
Repugnant Conclusion ◽  
Marginal Value ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Cost

AbstractDerek Parfit defends the Imprecise Lexical View as a way to avoid the Repugnant Conclusion. Allowing for ‘imprecise equality’, Parfit argues, makes it possible to avoid some well-known problems for the Lexical View. It is demonstrated that the Lexical View (without imprecise equality) has stronger implications than envisaged by Parfit; moreover, his assumption of Non-diminishing Marginal Value makes the Lexical View collapse into a much stronger view, which lets the two appear incompatible. Introducing imprecise equality does not address the latter problem. But it does makes it possible for the Imprecise Lexical View to soften the discontinuities it would otherwise face, at the cost of blurring the difference between options.However, if Non-diminishing Marginal Value is rejected, the remaining complications for the resulting most plausible version of the Imprecise Lexical View, including a confrontation with Arrhenius’ Non-Elitism Condition, may be within a range where the view largely remains defensible.

scholarly journals On Parfit’s Wide Dual Person-Affecting Principle

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (278) ◽  
pp. 114-139
Author(s):  
Michal Masny
Keyword(s):  
Derek Parfit ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Identity Problem ◽  
Repugnant Conclusion ◽  
Future People

Abstract In the posthumously published ‘Future People, the Non-Identity Problem, and Person-Affecting Principles’ (2017), Derek Parfit presents a novel axiological principle which he calls the Wide Dual Person-Affecting Principle and claims that it does not imply the Repugnant Conclusion. This paper shows that even the best version of Parfit's principle cannot avoid this conclusion. That said, accepting such a principle makes embracing the Repugnant Conclusion more justifiable. This paper further addresses important questions which Parfit left unanswered concerning: the relative importance of individual and collective goodness, comparisons involving unequal outcomes, how to understand individual goodness, and whether incomparability at the level of individual goodness implies incomparability at the level of overall goodness.

Cytoplasmic Granules in Lymphocytes from Rats Dosed with SK&F 14336-D

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 556-557
Author(s):  
T. G. Merrill ◽  
B. J. Payne ◽  
A. J. Tousimis
Keyword(s):  
Lipid Storage ◽  
Pokeweed Mitogen ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Cytoplasmic Granules ◽  
Storage Diseases ◽  
Tay Sachs Disease ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Microscopic Studies ◽  
Neurovisceral Lipidosis

Rats given SK&F 14336-D (9-[3-Dimethylamino propyl]-2-chloroacridane), a tranquilizing drug, developed an increased number of vacuolated lymphocytes as observed by light microscopy. Vacuoles in peripheral blood of rats and humans apparently are rare and are not usually reported in differential counts. Transforming agents such as phytohemagglutinin and pokeweed mitogen induce similar vacuoles in in vitro cultures of lymphocytes. These vacuoles have also been reported in some of the lipid-storage diseases of humans such as amaurotic familial idiocy, familial neurovisceral lipidosis, lipomucopolysaccharidosis and sphingomyelinosis. Electron microscopic studies of Tay-Sachs' disease and of chloroquine treated swine have demonstrated large numbers of “membranous cytoplasmic granules” in the cytoplasm of neurons, in addition to lymphocytes. The present study was undertaken with the purpose of characterizing the membranous inclusions and developing an experimental animal model which may be used for the study of lipid storage diseases.

Prolonged Fixation Studies For Spaceflight

1973 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 332-333
Author(s):  
Robert Corbett ◽  
Delbert E. Philpott ◽  
Sam Black
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Prolonged Storage ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Early Signs ◽  
Large Numbers

Observation of subtle or early signs of change in spaceflight induced alterations on living systems require precise methods of sampling. In-flight analysis would be preferable but constraints of time, equipment, personnel and cost dictate the necessity for prolonged storage before retrieval. Because of this, various tissues have been stored in fixatives and combinations of fixatives and observed at various time intervals. High pressure and the effect of buffer alone have also been tried.Of the various tissues embedded, muscle, cartilage and liver, liver has been the most extensively studied because it contains large numbers of organelles common to all tissues (Fig. 1).

Analysis of the Anterior Secretory Cells of Onchidohs Muricata (Nudibranchia)

1981 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 614-615
Author(s):  
Roy Skidmore
Keyword(s):  
Endoplasmic Reticulum ◽  
Secretory Granules ◽  
Golgi Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Secretory Cells ◽  
Secretory Vesicles ◽  
High Magnification ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Membrane Bound ◽  
Sole Of The Foot

The long-necked secretory cells in Onchidoris muricata are distributed in the anterior sole of the foot. These cells are interspersed among ciliated columnar and conical cells as well as short-necked secretory gland cells. The long-necked cells contribute a significant amount of mucoid materials to the slime on which the nudibranch travels. The body of these cells is found in the subepidermal tissues. A long process extends across the basal lamina and in between cells of the epidermis to the surface of the foot. The secretory granules travel along the process and their contents are expelled by exocytosis at the foot surface.The contents of the cell body include the nucleus, some endoplasmic reticulum, and an extensive Golgi body with large numbers of secretory vesicles (Fig. 1). The secretory vesicles are membrane bound and contain a fibrillar matrix. At high magnification the similarity of the contents in the Golgi saccules and the secretory vesicles becomes apparent (Fig. 2).

Selective Sampling and Orientation of Non-Homogeneous Tissues

1968 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 98-99
Author(s):  
C. C. Clawson ◽  
L. W. Anderson ◽  
R. A. Good
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Light Microscopy ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
New Method ◽  
Microscope Examination ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Selective Sampling ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Specific Orientation

Investigations which require electron microscope examination of a few specific areas of non-homogeneous tissues make random sampling of small blocks an inefficient and unrewarding procedure. Therefore, several investigators have devised methods which allow obtaining sample blocks for electron microscopy from region of tissue previously identified by light microscopy of present here techniques which make possible: 1) sampling tissue for electron microscopy from selected areas previously identified by light microscopy of relatively large pieces of tissue; 2) dehydration and embedding large numbers of individually identified blocks while keeping each one separate; 3) a new method of maintaining specific orientation of blocks during embedding; 4) special light microscopic staining or fluorescent procedures and electron microscopy on immediately adjacent small areas of tissue.

Microanalysis of precipitates in a ferritic steel

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 618-619
Author(s):  
J.M. Titchmarsh
Keyword(s):  
Ferritic Steel ◽  
Particle Identification ◽  
Energy Dispersive ◽  
Objective Lens ◽  
Ferritic Steels ◽  
Replica Technique ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Scanning Transmission ◽  
Made In

The advances in recent years in the microanalytical capabilities of conventional TEM's fitted with probe forming lenses allow much more detailed investigations to be made of the microstructures of complex alloys, such as ferritic steels, than have been possible previously. In particular, the identification of individual precipitate particles with dimensions of a few tens of nanometers in alloys containing high densities of several chemically and crystallographically different precipitate types is feasible. The aim of the investigation described in this paper was to establish a method which allowed individual particle identification to be made in a few seconds so that large numbers of particles could be examined in a few hours.A Philips EM400 microscope, fitted with the scanning transmission (STEM) objective lens pole-pieces and an EDAX energy dispersive X-ray analyser, was used at 120 kV with a thermal W hairpin filament. The precipitates examined were extracted using a standard C replica technique from specimens of a 2¼Cr-lMo ferritic steel in a quenched and tempered condition.

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