Aggregation and the structure of value

San, Weng Kin ORCID: 0000-0002-4468-4104 (2025) Aggregation and the structure of value. Noûs. ISSN 0029-4624

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Abstract

Roughly, the view I call “Additivism” sums up value across time and people. Given some standard assumptions, I show that Additivism follows from two principles. The first says that how lives align in time cannot, in itself, matter. The second says, roughly, that a world cannot be better unless it is better within some period or another. These principles, while plausible, presuppose a rich underlying structure of value—presuppositions that are implicit in the standard numerical framework of population ethics but that are often overlooked. A careful exploration of Additivism and the case for it reveals intricate connections between substantive questions about what value fundamentally consists in and structural questions about how to aggregate value.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Date Deposited:	18 Nov 2025 09:51
Last Modified:	17 Dec 2025 00:02
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130234

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