The Tyranny of the Contemporary
The Tyranny of the Contemporary
This chapter argues that the distant future poses a severe moral problem, the nature and extent of which has not yet been adequately appreciated. It also claims (1) that the problem is the main concern of distinctively intergenerational ethics, and (2) that it occurs both in a pure, long-term form manifest across human history and global populations, and also in degenerate forms which apply to shorter time periods and to social institutions. The problem is compared with the traditional prisoner's dilemma analysis, and climate change is offered as a leading example. Three major objections are also considered: the invisible hand, future uncertainty, and the philosophical non-identity problem made popular by Derek Parfit
Keywords: generations, intergenerational justice, fairy tale, pure intergenerational problem, non-identity problem, invisible hand, game theory
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