What We Owe to Future People

A Contractualist Account of Intergenerational Ethics
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-0-19-765325-8
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 147 mm x 201 mm, Gewicht: 386 g

What do we owe future people? Intergenerational ethics is of great philosophical and practical importance, given human beings' ability to affect not only the quality of life of future people, but also how many of them there will be (if any at all). This book develops a distinctly contractualist answer to this question--we need to justify our actions to them on grounds they could not reasonably reject.

The book develops principles of intergenerational ethics in four main areas. How good a life are we required to leave future people? When is it permissible for an individual to procreate? Should we try to ensure as many people as possible live in the future or allow humans to become extinct? How does the fact that we do not always know how our actions will affect future people change what we owe them? The book answers these questions by using the contractualist method to develop general moral principles in these areas, and then applying those principles to real-world, concrete situations that individuals and states face every day.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Finneron-Burns, Elizabeth

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Bioethik, Tierethik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Angewandte Ethik & Soziale Verantwortung Bioethik, Tierethik

Über Autor(innen)

Elizabeth Finneron-Burns is Assistant Professor of Political Theory at the University of Western Ontario and an affiliated researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm. Her work on intergenerational ethics and the ethics of human extinction has been published in various journals including Utilitas, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, and Ethical Theory and Moral Practice.