The Unhappy Conclusion

I argue that it is better to live an extremely long, drab life than a happy life of normal length. I rely on four premises, concerning (1) the separability of well-being in time, (2) the circumstances in which we should prolong someone’s life, (3) the shape-of-a-life hypothesis, and (4) tradeoffs between different levels of well-being within a life. I show that the conclusion has implications for the Millian lexical superiority view and for population ethics. It may also have implications for the well-being of animals in captivity and artificially intelligent welfare subjects.