The Practice-Independence of Intergenerational Justice

Utilitas 28 (4): 415-440 (2016)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The question whether distributive justice is at bottom practice-dependent or practice-independent has received much attention in recent years. I argue that the problem of intergenerational justice resolves this dispute in favor of practice-independence. Many believe that we owe more to our descendants than leaving them a world in which they can merely lead minimally decent lives. This thought is particularly convincing given the fact that it is us who determine to a significant extent what this future world will look like. However, no practices that would trigger distributive obligations exist between distant generations. Thus, if we have to leave more than a minimum for future generations, we cannot conceive of distributive justice in terms of the justification of ongoing social interactions. Rather we have to think of the entire concept as an idea based on persons’ legitimate interests and capacity for well-being, and which abstracts from participation in particular practices.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,225

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-03-09

Downloads
106 (#200,331)

6 months
11 (#343,210)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Merten Reglitz
University of Birmingham

References found in this work

A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition.John Rawls - 1999 - Harvard University Press.
The Problem of Global Justice.Thomas Nagel - 2005 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 33 (2):113-147.
Justice as Fairness: A Restatement.C. L. Ten - 2003 - Mind 112 (447):563-566.
Global justice, reciprocity, and the state.Andrea Sangiovanni - 2007 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 35 (1):3–39.

View all 18 references / Add more references