Moral Theory and Future Generations

Workshop: 17. and 18. November 2022, LMU Munich

Although the study of the moral significance of future generations is relevant for a great number of philosophical subdisciplines, the debate is broken up into many different strands with little interaction between them. We aim to bring these strands together by adopting an open and encompassing perspective that views the moral problems regarding the ethics of future generations as a unified complex requiring input from all relevant subareas. Thus we hope to allow for new synergy effects and fruitful theoretical exchange.
This area of moral philosophy (internationally known as "populaton ethics") is a fast-growing research field. However, it has so far gained little traction in German academic philosophy. With this conference we aim to change that by bringing together German philosophers working on these questions and international experts in the field.

Confirmed Participants: Jonas Harney (Saarland), Tim Henning (Mainz), Valeska Martin (HU Berlin), Jeff McMahan (Oxford), Kirsten Meyer (HU Berlin), Lukas Meyer (Graz), Korbinian Rüger (LMU), Christian Seidel (KIT), Charlotte Unruh (Oxford), Tatjana Visak (Mannheim), Konstantin Weber (Erlangen)

The workshop is a cooperation between KIT Karlsruhe and ZEPP and is organised by Valeska Martin, Korbinian Rüger, Christian Seidel, and Konstantin Weber.

Schedule

Thursday, 17 November

11:00: Welcome
11:15 – 12:15: Lukas Meyer - "Basic Needs and Sufficiency: The Foundations of Intergenerational Justice"
12:30 – 13:30: Charlotte Unruh - "Harm-based reasons and affecting future people"
13:30 – 14:30: Lunch
14:30 – 15:30: Korbinian Rüger - "Impersonal Value, Personal Complaints"
15:45 – 16:45: Valeska Martin - "Moral Contractualism, Non-Identity, and Types of Persons"
17:00 – 18:00: Tim Henning - "Complaints, Uncertainty, and Nonidentity"
19:00: Dinner

Friday, 18 November

09:15 – 10:15: Konstantin Weber - "Pluralism and Additional Lives"
10:30 – 11:30: Tatjana Visak - "Are person-affecting views compatible with existence comparativism?"
11:45 – 12:45: Jonas Harney - "Narrow Person-Affecting Considerations for Future People"
12:45 – 13:45 Lunch
13:45– 14:45: Kirsten Meyer - "The Claims of Future People and the Deterioration of the Environment"
15:00 – 16:00: Jeff McMahan - "Abortion, Prenatal Injury, and What Matters in Alternative Possible Lives"
16:00 Get Together