A dilemma for lexical and Archimedean views in population axiology

Lexical views in population axiology can avoid the Repugnant Conclusion without violating Transitivity or Separability. However, they imply a dilemma: either some good life is better than any number of slightly worse lives, or else the ‘at least as good as’ relation on populations is radically incom...

Täydet tiedot

Bibliografiset tiedot
Päätekijä: Thornley, E
Aineistotyyppi: Journal article
Kieli:English
Julkaistu: Cambridge University Press 2021
_version_ 1826311268048306176
author Thornley, E
author_facet Thornley, E
author_sort Thornley, E
collection OXFORD
description Lexical views in population axiology can avoid the Repugnant Conclusion without violating Transitivity or Separability. However, they imply a dilemma: either some good life is better than any number of slightly worse lives, or else the ‘at least as good as’ relation on populations is radically incomplete. In this paper, I argue that Archimedean views face an analogous dilemma. I thus conclude that the lexical dilemma gives us little reason to prefer Archimedean views. Even if we give up on lexicality, problems of the same kind remain.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T08:07:17Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:e33cb2a1-4c24-4e8c-aec7-053f90ba2784
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T08:07:17Z
publishDate 2021
publisher Cambridge University Press
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:e33cb2a1-4c24-4e8c-aec7-053f90ba27842023-11-02T08:01:54ZA dilemma for lexical and Archimedean views in population axiologyJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:e33cb2a1-4c24-4e8c-aec7-053f90ba2784EnglishSymplectic ElementsCambridge University Press2021Thornley, ELexical views in population axiology can avoid the Repugnant Conclusion without violating Transitivity or Separability. However, they imply a dilemma: either some good life is better than any number of slightly worse lives, or else the ‘at least as good as’ relation on populations is radically incomplete. In this paper, I argue that Archimedean views face an analogous dilemma. I thus conclude that the lexical dilemma gives us little reason to prefer Archimedean views. Even if we give up on lexicality, problems of the same kind remain.
spellingShingle Thornley, E
A dilemma for lexical and Archimedean views in population axiology
title A dilemma for lexical and Archimedean views in population axiology
title_full A dilemma for lexical and Archimedean views in population axiology
title_fullStr A dilemma for lexical and Archimedean views in population axiology
title_full_unstemmed A dilemma for lexical and Archimedean views in population axiology
title_short A dilemma for lexical and Archimedean views in population axiology
title_sort dilemma for lexical and archimedean views in population axiology
work_keys_str_mv AT thornleye adilemmaforlexicalandarchimedeanviewsinpopulationaxiology
AT thornleye dilemmaforlexicalandarchimedeanviewsinpopulationaxiology