Responsibility for the Future
Responsibility for the Future
This chapter analyzes the consequences of making future claims from a normative perspective. Future claims are a bet about the future that have to follow the criteria of truthfulness (chapter 6) while taking into account their possible effects on the course of events they seek to anticipate. In a situation where bold and hazardous future claims could have some beneficial effect on reality even if the chances are low, we should favor optimism instead of pessimism. In doing so, we seek the option that takes into account positive effects of future claims. We should also act more responsibly in favor of epistemic pluralism (chapter 2). The narrowness of the public space about the future not only affects the quality of future claims, it also goes against democratic pluralism and favors political inertia.
Keywords: Future, Consequentialism, Optimism, Pessimism, Public space, Democracy, Knowledge society
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