Intergenerational Justice (The Library of Essays on Justice)

The essays selected for this volume show how relations between past, current and future generations have become a major subject of philosophical research since the 1970s. The relations between people alive today with people who may exist in the future and people now deceased, differ from relations between contemporaries and in ways that raise new conceptual, logical and substantive questions. Among the questions addressed in this volume are: what is the status of people now deceased and people who may exist in the future? Can the latter be harmed by the actions of people alive today? What duties of justice do we have towards people with whom we can neither interact nor co-operate, and can people who are indirect victims of past injustices legitimately claim compensation? Answers to these questions are relevant in a number of policy areas, most notably in issues regarding reparations for historical injustice and responding to climate change and its consequences. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Series Preface Introduction PART I: FOUNDATIONS 1 Utilitarianism and New Generations 2 Distributive Shares 3 The Non-Identity Problem 4 The Intractability of the Nonidentity Problem 5 Surviving Duties and Symbolic Compensation 6 Discounting the Future 7 What Motivates Us to Care for the (Distant) Future? PART II: SUBSTANTIVE PRINCIPLES OF INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE 8 Wrongful Life, Procreative Responsibility, and the Significance of Harm 9 Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice 10 Nonideal Theory 11 Enough for the Future 12 Three Models of Intergenerational Reciprocity 13 Life Extension versus Replacement 14 The Pure Intergenerational Problem 15 Climate Change and the Duties of the Advantaged PART III: NORMATIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF HISTORICAL INJUSTICES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES 16 The New Indian Claims and Original Rights to Land 17 Superseding Historic Injustice 18 The Apology Paradox 19 Transgenerational Compensation 20 Who Can Be Wronged? 21 On Benefiting from Injustice 22 Climate Justice and Historical Emissions Name Index Addresses questions such as: What is the status of people now deceased and people who may exist in the future? What duties of justice do we have towards people with whom we can neither interact nor co-operate, and can people who are indirect victims of past injustices legitimately claim compensation?