Optimism and Pessimism
Optimism and Pessimism
This chapter begins with a basic list of intuitively plausible principles of intergenerational justice, against which Rule Consequentialism can be measured. It then establishes the Rule Consequentialist commitment to political liberty and shows how that commitment is strengthened in the intergenerational case. It is shown that Rule Consequentialism copes with the possibility of future declines in aggregate well-being much better than its opponents, such as Rawls’s liberalism. This is illustrated using the current dispute between growth optimists and ecological pessimists.
Keywords: intergenerational justice, politics, optimism, pessimism, accumulation, environment, growth, non-renewable, Rule Consequentialism
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