Introduction to Future Ethics
Seminar
20.04.2020 – 20.07.2020
Future Ethics considers questions concerning the temporal dimension of our lives and its moral implications for taking care of future generations and the environment. Future Ethics discusses issues like poverty, intergenerational pension systems and a fair distribution of the costs and benefits of climate change. One characteristic of Future Ethics is that the effects of our decisions on future generations are uncertain. Another characteristic is that our decisions will influence how many persons will come into existence in the future. Examples of questions in Future Ethics are:
- What do we owe to future generations?
- Do we have any moral obligations to future generations, and if yes, which obligations?
- Is the world better with fewer persons enjoying prosperous well-being or with more persons having barely what is necessary to subsist?
- What will be the conception for a good life of future generations which are not born yet?
- How can democratic institutions today take the rights and interests of future generations into account?
The questions above illustrate that intergenerational justice is an important part of Future Ethics. Trying to find answers for these questions is especially important with regard to the destruction of the environment, climate change and sustainability.