Peter Gildenhuys, “The Nonidentity Problem Is an Artifact of Faulty Causal Reasoning,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 77, no. 4 (2021): 1339–54, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2021_77_4_1339.
| Type | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Author | Peter Gildenhuys |
| Rights | © 2021 by Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |
| Volume | 77 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1339-1354 |
| Publication | Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |
| ISSN | 0870-5283 |
| Date | 2021 |
| DOI | 10.17990/RPF/2021_77_4_1339 |
| Language | English |
| Abstract | This paper argues that the nonidentity problem is really an artifact of faulty causal reasoning. In order to solve the nonidentity problem, we must determine that an agent causes a loss of happiness to another agent by means of an action that also causes the victim to exist. Woodward’s (2003) test for actual causation yields just this result. Equally crucial to solving the problem is the recognition that harms must be intentional and that intentionality is a function of norm-violation; this latter position is defended by Holton (2010). That the solution proposed is adequate is defended on the grounds that it yields intuitively correct judgments for a host of imaginary scenarios contemplated by theorists focused on determining what should count as harms. |
| Date Added | 1/31/2022, 10:52:16 PM |
| Modified | 1/31/2022, 11:40:06 PM |
Boonin, David. The Non-Identity Problem & the Ethics of Future People. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Gardner, Molly. “David Boonin on the Non-Identity Argument: Rejecting the Second Premise.” Law, Ethics, and Philosophy 7 (2019): 29-47. https://doi.org/10.31009/LEAP.2019.V7.03
Hanser, Matthew. “Harming Future People.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 19 (1990): 47-70.
Hanser, Matthew. “The Metaphysics of Harm.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 77, no. 2 (2008): 421-50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40041242
Holton, Richard. “Norms and the Knobe Effect.” Analysis 70, no. 3 (2010): 417-24. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anq037.
McMahan, Jeff. “Causing People to Exist and Saving People’s Lives.” Journal of Ethics 1 (2013): 5-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-012-9139-1
Parfit, Derek. “Future Generations: Further Problems.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 11, no. 2 (1981): 113-72.
Parfit, Derek. “Future People, the Non-Identity Problem, and Person-Affecting Principles.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 45, no. 2 (2017): 118-57. https://doi.org/10/1111/papa/12088.
Shiffrin, Seana. “Wrongful Life, Procreative Responsibility, and the Significance of Harm.” Legal Theory 5 (1999): 117-48.
Woodward, James. Making Things Happen. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Woodward, James. “The Non-Identity Problem.” Ethics 96, no. 4 (1986): 804-31.
Woollard, Fiona. “Have We Solved the Non-Identity Problem?”. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 15 (2012): 677-690, https://doi.org/10/1007/s10677-012-9359-2.
