PHIL 727

Ethics 2


Please note: this is archived course information from 2021 for PHIL 727.

Description

A prominent topic in recent moral theory is what present people owe to future people – those who will (or might) exist in the future. Debate centres on a set of theoretical puzzles posed in Part Four of Derek Parfit’s Reasons and Persons.  Can you wrong someone if your actions are also responsible for their existence? What is the ideal population size? Can we imagine a contract with distant future people? How should we balance the interests of present and future people? Does it matter whether there are any future people at all? What moral weight should we attach to risks of imminent human extinction?

 

Assessment: Coursework only

Availability 2021

Semester 1

Lecturer(s)

Lecturer(s) Professor Timothy Mulgan

Reading/Texts

The best introduction to the issues and methods covered in the course is to look at Parfit's Reasons and Persons, Oxford University Press, 1984, Part Four (chapters 16 to 19), which is available as an e-book through the University of Auckland library. (It is also available in hardback, paperback, and kindle editions.)

Recommended Reading

  1. Mulgan, T., "How should utilitarians think about the future?", Canadian Journal of Philosophy 47, 2017, pp. 290-312. Online early: DOI: 10.1080/00455091.2017.1279517.
  2. Mulgan, T., Ethics for a Broken World, Acumen, 2011.

Points

PHIL 727: 15 points