Should Probabilistic Thinking Affect Moral Reasoning?

Economics and Meta-Ethics

Scott Alexander recently wrote about the ethics of killing Androids—what if there’s a 50/50 chance they feel pain? A 50/50 chance they possess “moral worth”—however you define it? Most of us would not want to take such a chance, all else being equal. But would about a 1/99 chance, he asks? How do you weigh risk and reward, downside and upside, when enga…