Incommensurability, conditional value, and the procreation asymmetry

Abstract A popular view in population ethics is the procreation asymmetry, according to which we have strong reasons not to bring a miserable life into existence but no reason to bring a good life into existence. Several philosophers have recently defended this asymmetry by arguing for incommensurability between a good life and nonexistence, on the grounds that the values of positive welfare goods are conditional on the existence of the person who receives them. In this paper I present an argument against incommensurability between good lives and nonexistence, show how an appeal to conditional intrinsic value can avoid that argument, and present a problem for that solution.