Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:28:19.859Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Critical-Level Utilitarianism and the Population-Ethics Dilemma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Charles Blackorby ,
Walter Bossert  and
David Donaldson
Charles Blackorby
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia and GREQAM
Walter Bossert
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
David Donaldson
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Advances in technology have made it possible for us to take actions that affect the numbers and identities of humans and other animals that will live in the future. Effective and inexpensive birth control, child allowances, genetic screening, safe abortion, in vitro fertilization, the education of young women, sterilization programs, environmental degradation and war all have these effects.

Type
Essays
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , October 1997 , pp. 197 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arrhenius, G. 1997. ‘An impossibility theorem for welfarist axiologies’. University of Toronto (mimeo)Google Scholar
Bermúdez, J. 1996. ‘The moral significance of birth’. Ethics, 106:378–403CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D., 1995a. ‘Intertemporal population ethics: critical-level utilitarian principles’. Econometrica, 65:1303–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D.. 1995b. ‘Birth-date dependent population ethics: critical-level principles’. Journal of Economic Theory. ForthcomingGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D.. 1996a. ‘Leximin population ethics’. Mathematical Social Sciences, 31:115–31CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D.. 1996b. ‘Quasi-orderings and population ethics’. Social Choice and Welfare, 13:129–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D.. 1996c. ‘Foreign aid and population policy: some ethical considerations’. Discussion Paper 96–22. University of British Columbia, Department of EconomicsGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D.. 1996d. ‘Information invariance in variable-population social-choice problems’. Working Paper 9616. University of Waterloo, Department of EconomicsGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D.. 1997a. ‘Intertemporally consistent population ethics: classical utilitarian principles’. In Social Choice Re-Examined. Arrow, K., Sen, A. and Suzumura, K. (eds.). MacMillan. ForthcomingGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D.. 1997b. ‘Intertemporally consistent population ethics: birth-date dependent classical principles’. Japanese Economic Review. ForthcomingCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W. and Donaldson, D.. 1997c. ‘Uncertainty and critical-level population principles’. Journal of Population Economics. ForthcomingGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Bossert, W., Donaldson, D. and Fleurbaey, M.. 1997. ‘Critical levels and the (reverse) repugnant conclusion’. Discussion Paper 97–10. University of British Columbia, Department of EconomicsGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C. and Donaldson, D.. 1979. ‘Numbers and the standard of living: an ethical examination of the pure population problem’. Discussion Paper 79–19. University of British Columbia, Department of EconomicsGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C. and Donaldson, D.. 1984. ‘Social criteria for evaluating population change’. Journal of Public Economics, 25:13–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C. and Donaldson, D.. 1991. ‘Normative population theory: a comment’. Social Choice and Welfare, 8:261–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C. and Donaldson, D.. 1992a. ‘The value of living: a comment’. Recherches Economiques de Louvain, 58:143–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C. and Donaldson, D.. 1992b. ‘Pigs and guinea pigs: a note on the ethics of animal exploitation’. Economic Journal, 102:1345–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Donaldson, D. and Weymark, J.. 1984. ‘Social choice with interpersonal utility comparisons: a diagrammatic introduction’. International Economic Review, 25:327–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Donaldson, D. and Waymark, J.. 1990. ‘A welfarist proof of Arrow's theorem’. Recherches Economiques de Louvain, 56:259–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Donaldson, D. and Weymark, J.. 1996. ‘Harsanyi's social aggregation theorem for state-contingent alternatives’. Discussion Paper 96–26. University of British Columbia, Department of EconomicsGoogle Scholar
Blackorby, C., Donaldson, D. and Weymark, J.. 1997. ‘Social aggregation and the expected utility hypothesis’. Discussion Paper 97–05. University of British Columbia, Department of EconomicsCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bossert, W. 1990a. ‘Maximin welfare orderings with variable population size’. Social Choice and Welfare, 7:39–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bossert, W. 1990b. ‘Social evaluation with variable population size: an alternative concept’. Mathematical Social Sciences, 19:143–58CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bossert, W. 1991. ‘On intra- and interpersonal utility comparisons’. Social Choice and Welfare, 8:207–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bossert, W. and Weymark, J.. 1997. ‘Utility in social choice’. In Handbook of Utility Theory. Barberà, S., Hammond, P. and Seidl, C. (eds.). Kluwer. ForthcomingGoogle Scholar
Broome, J. 1991. Weighing Goods. Basil BlackwellGoogle Scholar
Broome, J. 1992a. ‘The value of living’. Recherches Economiques de Louvain, 58:125–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broome, J. 1992b. ‘Reply to Blackorby and Donaldson, and Dréze’. Recherches Economiques de Louvain, 58:167–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broome, J. 1992c. Counting the Cost of Global Warming. White HorseGoogle Scholar
Broome, J. 1993. ‘Goodness is reducible to betterness: the evil of death is the value of life’. In The Good and the Economical: Ethical Choices in Economics and Management. Koslowski, P. (ed.). Springer-VerlagGoogle Scholar
Cowen, T. 1989. ‘Normative population theory’. Social Choice and Welfare, 6:33–43CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowen, T. 1992. ‘Consequentialism implies a zero rate of intergenerational discount’. In Justice Between Age Groups and Generations. Laslett, P. and Fishkin, J. (eds.). Yale University PressGoogle Scholar
Cowen, T. 1996. ‘What do we leam from the repugnant conclusion?’ Ethics, 106:754–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowen, T. and Parfit, D.. 1992. ‘Against the social discount rate’. In Justice Between Age Groups and Generations. Laslett, P. and Fishkin, J. (eds.). Yale University PressGoogle Scholar
Dasgupta, P. 1993. An Inquiry into Well-Being and Destitution. Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
d'Aspremont, C. and Gevers, L.. 1977. ‘Equity and the informational basis of social choice’. Review of Economic Studies, 44:19–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, D. and Roemer, J.. 1987. ‘Social choice in economic environments with dimensional variation’. Social Choice and Welfare, 4:253–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glannon, W. 1996. ‘Persons, lives, and posthumous harms’. Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia (mimeo)Google Scholar
Glannon, W. 1997. ‘Embryos, biotechnology, and future people’. Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia (mimeo)Google Scholar
Griffin, J. 1986. Well-Being: Its Meaning, Measurement, and Moral Importance. Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Hammond, P. 1988. ‘Consequentialist demographic norms and parenting rights’. Social Choice and Welfare, 5:127–46CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harsanyi, J. 1955. ‘Cardinal welfare, individualistic ethics and interpersonal comparisons’. Journal of Political Economy, 63:309–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heyd, D. 1992. Genethics: Moral Issues in the Creation of People. University of California PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurka, T. 1982. ‘Average utilitarianism’. Analysis, 42:65–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurka, T. 1983. ‘Value and population size’. Ethics, 93:496–507CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahan, J. 1981. ‘Problems of population theory’. Ethics, 92:96–127CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahan, J. 1996a. ‘Cognitive disability, misfortune, and justice’. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 25:3–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahan, J. 1996b. ‘Wrongful life: paradoxes in the morality of causing people to exist’. University of Illinois (mimeo)Google Scholar
Mongin, P. and d'Aspremont, C.. 1997. ‘Utility theory in ethics’. In Handbook of Utility Theory. Barberà, S., Hammond, P. and Seidl, C. (eds.). Kluwer. ForthcomingGoogle Scholar
Narveson, J. 1967. ‘Utilitarianism and new generations’. Mind, 76:62–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ng, Y.-K. 1986. ‘Social criteria for evaluating population change: an alternative to the Blackorby-Donaldson criterion’. Journal of Public Economics, 29:375–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parfit, D. 1976. ‘On doing the best for our children’. In Ethics and Population. Bayles, M. (ed.). SchenkmanGoogle Scholar
Parfit, D. 1982. ‘Future generations, further problems’. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 11:113–72Google Scholar
Parfit, D. 1984. Reasons and Persons. Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Harvard University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, K. 1980a. ‘Possibility theorems with interpersonally comparable welfare levels’. Review of Economic Studies, 47:409–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, K. 1980b. ‘Interpersonal comparability and social choice theory’. Review of Economic Studies, 47:421–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roemer, J. 1996. Theories of Distributive Justice. Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. 1974. ‘Informational bases of alternative welfare approaches: aggregation and income distribution’. Journal of Public Economics, 3:387–403CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. 1977. ‘On weights and measures: informational constraints in social welfare analysis’. Econometrica, 45:1539–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. 1991. ‘Welfare economics and population ethics’. Presented at the Nobel Jubilee Symposium on Population Development and Welfare,December 5–7, 1991.Harvard University (mimeo)Google Scholar
Sikora, R. 1978. ‘Is it wrong to prevent the existence of future generations?’ In Obligations to Future Generations. Sikora, R. I. and Barry, B. (eds.). TempleGoogle Scholar
Singer, P. 1994. Rethinking Life and Death. The Text Publishing CompanyGoogle Scholar
Sumner, L. 1978. ‘Classical utilitarianism and the population optimum’. In Obligations to Future Generations. Sikora, R. I. and Barry, B. (eds.). TempleGoogle Scholar
Sumner, L. 1992. ‘Two theories of the good’. Social Philosophy and Policy, 9:1–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sumner, L. 1996. Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics. Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar