Heteric Welfarism: Intuitions and Puzzles

Talk by Michael Livermore, 2023-2024 Paris IAS fellow, for the Frontiers of Economics and Philosophy conference at the Paris School of Economics.

Presentation

Heteric welfarism is the view that the diversity of subjective experience is morally significant, such that worlds with a greater variety of experiences are better, ceteris paribus, then worlds with less variety of subjective experience. Heteric welfarism vindicates intuitions that species extinction (at least of complex, sentient organisms) is a special loss, above and beyond effects on individual well-being. It also provides reasons to protect endangered cultures and ways of life. Questions raised by heteric welfarism include its interaction with the Pareto principle, how to best treat rare but negative experiences, and concerns related to the leveling down objection and the repugnant conclusion. This talk will describe heteric welfarism, discuss some of its motivating intuitions, and explore some of the puzzles that it raises.

Practical information

See the event's webpage.