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Instructors: Dr. Colin Negenborn
Event type:
Interactive class
Displayed in timetable as:
Hours per week:
3
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
English
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 45
Comments/contents:
What do we owe future generations? In this seminar, we will analyse the key issues of intergenerational justice.
First, do have obligations towards posterity at all? Can people who do not yet exist today already have rights today? What if their very existence in the future depends on our actions in the present? Do we need to, and can we, substantiate duties towards posterity despite this non-identity problem?
Second: If we do owe something to future generations - of what? Natural resources? Future capabilities? Utility? Sustainability? Furthermore, how are the demands of intergenerational justice and sustainability related to one another - is one sufficient or necessary for the other?
Third: If we do ow soomething to future generations - how much? Is there substantiation to the saying that we should leave earth in a state as good as we found it? How does this obligation in the change of exogenous and endogenous changes to the bequest package? Are sufficientarian or egalitarian standards applicable, and do they apply to future individual persons or to future collective generations?
Finally, how should we actually think about intergenerational justice? Does the distributive dimension suffice? Can we extend intragenerational theories to the intergenerational sphere? How do different theories of intergenerational justice (e.g. Rawlsian, Lockean, contractarian, etc.) fare in comparison with one another?
These - and other - questions will be subject of discussion in the seminar.
Learning objectives:
The seminar enables students to critically discuss key issues of intergenerational justice. This particularly includes the conceptual difficulties arising when theories of justice are extended in time. Students shall be able to understand how claims for intergenerational justice can differ in substantiation and in content. In addition to these competences on the theory side, the seminar will provide them with the means to scrutinise everyday parlance about intergenerational justice in practice, particularly in relation to sustainability.
Didactic concept:
We will have weekly on-site meetings where we will discuss the respective readings. The syllabus will be shared in the first session. In addition to the in-plenum discussion, there will be student presentations (to be assigned in the first session) and group exercises (explained throughout the semester). The final grade will be an equally weighted average of the in-class presentation and an essay at the end of the semester.
Literature:
A digital reader will be provided. Some background readings:
Gosseries, A. and Meyer, L.H. (2009) Intergenerational Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gosseries, A. (2008) ‘Theories of intergenerational justice: a synopsis’, Surveys and Perspectives Integrating Environment and Society (SAPIENS), 1(1), pp. 61–71.
Rawls, J. (1999) A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (§44)
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