In this timely study, Thompson presents a theory of intergenerational justice that gives citizens duties to past and future generations, showing why people can make legitimate demands of their successors and explaining what relationships between contemporary generations count as fair. What connects these various responsibilities and entitlements is a view about individual interests that both argues that individuals are motivated by intergenerational concerns, and that a polity that appropriately recognizes these interests must support and accept intergenerational responsibilities. The book ranges over the philosophical, ethical, political and environmental questions raised by intergenerational issues: how we can have duties to non-existent people, whether we can wrong the dead or be held responsible for what they did, what sacrifices we should make for our successors, and whether we have duties to people of the remote future. Encompassing the ethical problems created by demographic change, the ethical issues of population control and intergenerational implications of new technologies for creating people, this book will be of interest to those studying philosophy, politics, legal theory, and environmental studies.

In this timely study, Thompson presents a theory of intergenerational justice that gives citizens duties to past and future generations, showing why people can make legitimate demands of their successors and explaining what relationships between contemporary generations count as fair. What connects these various responsibilities and entitlements is a view about individual interests that both argues that individuals are motivated by intergenerational concerns, and that a polity that appropriately recognizes these interests must support and accept intergenerational responsibilities. The book ranges over the philosophical, ethical, political and environmental questions raised by intergenerational issues: how we can have duties to non-existent people, whether we can wrong the dead or be held responsible for what they did, what sacrifices we should make for our successors, and whether we have duties to people of the remote future. Encompassing the ethical problems created by demographic change, the ethical issues of population control and intergenerational implications of new technologies for creating people, this book will be of interest to those studying philosophy, politics, legal theory, and environmental studies.

Ethical disagreement is a fact of social life. We disagree about issues such as abortion, euthanasia, the meaning of justice and the treatment of animals, and our debates often fail to reach a consensus. Some philosophers think that this means there is no objective knowledge about morality. Discourse and Knowledge takes a radically different approach to the defence of ethical rationality. It claims that there is a correct solution to ethical controversies, but that ethical decisions have to be made collectively.
Written specifically for those studying or teaching ethics or moral theory, Discourse and Knowledge will also be ideal for those on courses on social theory, ethics or feminist philosophy.

Now that the Cold War has ended and poverty, environmental crises and nationalist demands loom so large in world affairs, the establishment of a just world order has become an urgent priority. But what is international justice? Are international agents ever likely to be just, and under what conditions? This book considers answers to these questions as found in the modern tradition of political philosophy - the tradition of Hobbes, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Mill and Marx - and in contemporary writings about international justice and world order. "Justice and World Order" determines the implications for international justice of the debates between cosmopolitans and communitarians. Is a well-grounded, universally acceptable theory of international justice possible, and if so, what social relationships should a just world promote? The book develops a theory of international justice and a conception of a just world which take as basic a respect for individual freedom and differences among communities. This book should be of interest to undergraduates and academics of social and political philosophy.

The 'sorting society' expresses what many people believe will be the outcome of advances in genetic technology: a society in which many characteristics of children are no longer the result of genetic chance but of deliberate selection. This book focuses on the ethical, legal and social issues raised by this technology. Is the prospect of a sorting society something that we should welcome or deplore? Do concerns about how parents or societies might exercise the choice given to them by genetic technology give us reason to restrain its creation or use? Would a sorting society increase the freedom of parents and the well being of children, or would it undermine values that are central to a liberal democratic society? These are questions of the most profound significance, bearing on the world in which our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will live. This is a must-read for everyone interested in the forefront of genetics and bioethics.

Historical Justice and Memory highlights the global movement for historical justice-acknowledging and redressing historic wrongs-as one of the most significant moral and social developments of our times. Such historic wrongs include acts of genocide, slavery, systems of apartheid, the systematic persecution of presumed enemies of the state, colonialism, and the oppression of or discrimination against ethnic or religious minorities. The historical justice movement has inspired the spread of truth and reconciliation processes around the world and has pushed governments to make reparations and apologies for past wrongs. It has changed the public understanding of justice and the role of memory. In this book, leading scholars in philosophy, history, political science, and semiotics offer new essays that discuss and assess these momentous global developments. They evaluate the strength and weaknesses of the movement, its accomplishments and failings, its philosophical assumptions and social preconditions, and its prospects for the future.

Janna Thompson is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at La TrobeUniversity and the Head of the Melbourne University Branch of the Centre forApplied Philosophy and Public Ethics. She is the author of TakingResponsibility for the Past (Polity, 2002) and other books and articles onreparation, justice, and political affairs.