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The case for adding more and more people to the Earth
If life is good, are we morally obligated to create more of it?
Philosopher Torbjörn Tännsjö says yes.
- Dylan Matthews
- Vox
How many people should there be?
This is the core debate in a whole branch of philosophy known as population ethics.
The debate has two polar extremes.
One extreme, anti-natalism, argues that creating humans at all is…
The other extreme is the view that creating humans is always a good thing — even if that results in a less happy population on average. (Most people are somewhere in between: More moderate philosophers who…
The avidly natalist view is often identified with religious commitment, in Abrahamic faiths…