The Future of Utilitarianism

In James Maclaurin (ed.), Rationis Defensor (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Climate change has obvious practical implications. It will kill millions of people, wipe out thousands of species, and so on. My question in this paper is much narrower. How might climate change impact on moral theory – and especially on the debate between utilitarians and their non-utilitarian rivals? I argue that climate change creates serious theoretical difficulties for non-utilitarian moral theories – especially those that based morality or justice on any contract or bargain for reciprocal advantage. Climate change thus tips the dialectical balance in favour of utilitarianism. However, I also argue that, because it upsets assumptions that lie behind the most plausible forms of modern utilitarianism, climate change may also push utilitarianism in a more austere and demanding direction.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

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

What Climate Policy Can a Utilitarian Justify?Bernward Gesang - 2013 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 26 (2):377-392.
Climate Change: A Challenge for Ethics.Evangelos D. Protopapadakis - 2012 - In Walter Leal Filho Evangelos Manolas (ed.), English through Climate Change. Democritus University of Thrace. pp. 167.
Justice and Climate Change: Toward a Libertarian Analysis.Dan C. Shahar - 2009 - The Independent Review 14 (2):219-237.
Global Justice and Global Climate Change.Duane Windsor - 2009 - Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society 20:23-34.
Human Engineering and Climate Change.S. Matthew Liao, Anders Sandberg & Rebecca Roache - 2012 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 15 (2):206 - 221.
Climate Change, Responsibility, and Justice.Dale Jamieson - 2010 - Science and Engineering Ethics 16 (3):431-445.
Individual Responsibility for Climate Change.Melany Banks - 2013 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 51 (1):42-66.

Analytics

Added to PP
2012-06-11

Downloads
175 (#102,212)

6 months
5 (#244,526)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Tim Mulgan
University of Auckland

Citations of this work

The Future of Philosophy.Tim Mulgan - 2013 - Metaphilosophy 44 (3):241-253.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references