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Alex Voorhoeve: Equality for Possible People: A Defence.

When:We 08-05-2019 15:15 - 17:00
Where:Room Omega

Lecture by Alex Voorhoeve, organized by The Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Marc Fleurbaey and I have proposed a form of egalitarianism for possible people, on which we should be concerned with people’s expected well-being, conditional on their existence. (An example might be what a possible person’s healthy life expectancy would be if they were created.) Critics, including Jake Nebel and Toby Handfield, have argued that a person's expected well-being, conditional on their existence, does not have the importance we attribute to it. Against their challenges, I argue that the quality of a potential person's prospects at the moment of our choice to create them is an essential element in justifying decisions to them, should we choose to create them. I also argue it is especially important to avoid creating people with poor prospects.