Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy
|
Buy Now
Obligations to Future Generations (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,739
Discovery Miles 17 390
|
|
Obligations to Future Generations (Hardcover)
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
|
When this seminal collection of essays was first published in 1978,
the philosophical 'problem' of obligations to fixture generations
was not widely recognised. But as the contributors point out, the
theories that have constituted the stock-in-trade of moral
philosophers for the past two hundred years often produce weird and
counter-intuitive results when they are extended to try to include
those who are as yet unborn. Utilitarianism can appear to recommend
practically unlimited population increase, with quantity of life
taking precedence over quality; theories based on a social contract
present difficulties involving reciprocity - we can affect the
lives of future people while they apparently cannot affect ours;
while the idea of rights seems difficult to apply to those whose
future existence may depend on our present choice of action - do
'potential' people have a 'right' to be born? On its original
publication, the journal Ethics devoted 30 pages to a review of
Obligations to Future Generations, and the book is still frequently
and extensively cited and discussed. The philosophical questions
raised here centre around 'whether and to what degree it can be
morally incumbent on us to make sacrifices to bring happy people
into the world or to avoid preventing them being brought into the
world'. The implications surrounding this central question are
becoming ever more urgent in the light of increasing concerns over
dwindling resources, population growth, globalisation and
environmental risk. This collection is essential reading for
students of ethics and social policy, and for anyone concerned with
the relation between the present choices and future chances of
humanity.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
You might also like..
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.