PHIL 2270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Intergenerational Equity, Natural Capital
14 Jun 2018
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“The Ignorance Argument” – B. Norton
A system is sustainable only if it is beneficial to future generations.
Bequest package: what the current generation leaves for the next generation.
Intended bequests: what the current generation intends on leaving future generations.
Obligations to future generations involve finding a fair trade-off between what we
consume today vs. what future generations can consume via our foregoing some
consumption today.
Grand Simplication (GS): the reduction of intergenerational justice to cross-temporal
comparisons of welfare opportunities, only requires weak sustainability.
Weak Sustainability: leave future generations at least as well off as we are in terms of
enjoyment of welfares.
Fairness = finding a good balance between what we consume and what we invest in
the future.
Strong Sustainability: requires the protection of natural capital in addition to what weak
sustainability requires.
Environmentalists are skeptical about the GS approach to sustainability – it is too simple
in ignoring the shape we leave the environment in re: future generations.
The GS approach rests on the ignorance argument that we cannot be sure what
natural capital is required by future generations.
The Distance Problem: how far into the future to do our moral obligations hold?
Typology of effects problem: which actions are under the scope of morality and which
actions are simply the result of market forces?
Environmentalists believe that we owe future generations clean water, biodiversity and
nature reserves.
We also have to pass on community-based goods like clean air and water that can be
enjoyed by future generations – forests, diverse animal species, etc.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
A system is sustainable only if it is beneficial to future generations. Bequest package: what the current generation leaves for the next generation. Intended bequests: what the current generation intends on leaving future generations. Obligations to future generations involve finding a fair trade-off between what we consume today vs. what future generations can consume via our foregoing some consumption today. Grand simplication (gs): the reduction of intergenerational justice to cross-temporal comparisons of welfare opportunities, only requires weak sustainability. Weak sustainability: leave future generations at least as well off as we are in terms of enjoyment of welfares. Fairness = finding a good balance between what we consume and what we invest in the future. Strong sustainability: requires the protection of natural capital in addition to what weak sustainability requires. Environmentalists are skeptical about the gs approach to sustainability it is too simple in ignoring the shape we leave the environment in re: future generations.
