- Consequentialism as an Intergenerational Ethic
- A Deontological Approach to Future Consequences
- For a Care-Based Intergenerational Ethic
- Contractualism, Interpersonal and Intergenerational
- Intergenerational Cooperation and the Social Contract
- Intergenerational Justice and Equality
- The Community, the Nation, and Obligations to Future Generations
- Capabilities, Future Generations, and Climate Justice
- Long-Term Non-anthropocentric Ethics
- Confucianism and Intergenerational Ethics
- Intergenerational Justice: An African Perspective
- Buen Vivir: A Latin American Contribution to Intra- and Intergenerational Justice
- Intergenerational Metaphors
- Well-being and Intergenerational Ethics
- Basic Needs and Sufficiency: The Foundations of Intergenerational Justice
- Natural Resources, Sustainability, and Intergenerational Ethics
- The Intergenerational Value of Natural Heritage
- Irreversible Loss
- Meaning and Value Across the Generations
- A World They Don’t Deserve: Moral Failure and Deep Adaptation
- Justice Between Coexisting Generations
- The Just Savings Principle
- The Family and Intergenerational Justice: A Liberal Egalitarian Perspective
- Do We Have Moral Duties to Past People?
- Parfit and the Non-Identity Problem
- Risk, Responsibility, and Procreative Asymmetries
- Human Rights and Intergenerational Ethics
- Discursive Justice in and With Future Generations
- Intergenerational Ethics and Individual Duties: A Cooperative Promotional Approach
- Political Institutions and Intergenerational Ethics: Disenfranchising the Future?
- Postericide and Intergenerational Ethics
- Universal State Pension Schemes and the Duties of Retirees
- On “Dynastic” Inequality
- Intergenerational Justice and Debt
- Reparation as Intergenerational Justice
- Should We Deploy Nuclear Energy?: How Intergenerational Ethics Could Help to Escape the Dichotomy
- Nuclear Deterrence—Another Perfect Storm
- The Challenge of Population
- Species Conservation, Biotechnology, and Intergenerational Ethics
- Moral Bioenhancement and Future Generations: Selecting Martyrdom?
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter defends a deontological approach to both the non-identity problem and what is referred to as the “inconsequentiality problem.” Both problems arise in cases where, although the actions of presently living people appear to have harmful consequences for future people, it is difficult to explain why there are moral reasons against such actions. The deontological response to both problems appeals to a distinction between causal and non-causal consequences. By acknowledging the moral importance of such a distinction, deontologists can vindicate the judgment that, collectively and individually, present people have harm-based reasons against bringing about bad consequences for future people.
Keywords: deontological approach, non-identity problem, inconsequentiality problem, harm-based reason, causal consequence, non-causal consequence
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Bowling Green State University
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- Consequentialism as an Intergenerational Ethic
- A Deontological Approach to Future Consequences
- For a Care-Based Intergenerational Ethic
- Contractualism, Interpersonal and Intergenerational
- Intergenerational Cooperation and the Social Contract
- Intergenerational Justice and Equality
- The Community, the Nation, and Obligations to Future Generations
- Capabilities, Future Generations, and Climate Justice
- Long-Term Non-anthropocentric Ethics
- Confucianism and Intergenerational Ethics
- Intergenerational Justice: An African Perspective
- Buen Vivir: A Latin American Contribution to Intra- and Intergenerational Justice
- Intergenerational Metaphors
- Well-being and Intergenerational Ethics
- Basic Needs and Sufficiency: The Foundations of Intergenerational Justice
- Natural Resources, Sustainability, and Intergenerational Ethics
- The Intergenerational Value of Natural Heritage
- Irreversible Loss
- Meaning and Value Across the Generations
- A World They Don’t Deserve: Moral Failure and Deep Adaptation
- Justice Between Coexisting Generations
- The Just Savings Principle
- The Family and Intergenerational Justice: A Liberal Egalitarian Perspective
- Do We Have Moral Duties to Past People?
- Parfit and the Non-Identity Problem
- Risk, Responsibility, and Procreative Asymmetries
- Human Rights and Intergenerational Ethics
- Discursive Justice in and With Future Generations
- Intergenerational Ethics and Individual Duties: A Cooperative Promotional Approach
- Political Institutions and Intergenerational Ethics: Disenfranchising the Future?
- Postericide and Intergenerational Ethics
- Universal State Pension Schemes and the Duties of Retirees
- On “Dynastic” Inequality
- Intergenerational Justice and Debt
- Reparation as Intergenerational Justice
- Should We Deploy Nuclear Energy?: How Intergenerational Ethics Could Help to Escape the Dichotomy
- Nuclear Deterrence—Another Perfect Storm
- The Challenge of Population
- Species Conservation, Biotechnology, and Intergenerational Ethics
- Moral Bioenhancement and Future Generations: Selecting Martyrdom?