Harvard Review of Philosophy Annual Lecture

Derek Parfit (All Souls College, Oxford) "Can We Avoid the Repugnant Conclusion?: On the Ethics of Population and Lexical Superiority"

More than thirty years ago, in Reasons and Persons, Parfit sketched out his mere addition paradox, which involved a seemingly repugnant conclusion: that compared with the existence of many people who would all have some very high quality of life, there could be some much larger number of people whose existence would be better, even though these people would all have lives that were barely worth living. This Thursday, Parfit will speak on whether we can avoid it.

Reception in the Bechtel Room to follow.