Justice to Future Generations and the Environment: 40 (Law and Philosophy Library, 40) - Hardcover

Visser 't Hooft, H.P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792357566 ISBN 13: 9780792357568

Publisher: Springer, 1999

Synopsis

The analysis of justice between generations proposed in this book is based first of all on a critical reading of Rawls' theory of justice, but it also pays attention to the existential and cultural context of our intuitions about intergenerational equity. Although the desire for justice supplies an independent reason for action, the unprecedented character of the context in which that reason must operate necessarily raises the question of its psychological support: we want justice for future people, but what interest do we have in their welfare in the first place? I have tried to capture this double orientation by making use of Thomas Nagel's conceptual dichotomy between the objective, detached point of view, and the subjective (in our case: the cuturally and historically situated) perspective. There is, on the one hand, a desire for justice that tends towards the definition of transhistorical standards, detached from the particular values ofthe time and place; there is, on the other hand, a motivational background that is tied to our present position in history, and nourished by the values we presently believe in. I have attempted to bridge the gap between the one and the other dimension by different conceptual avenues, the principal one being a time-related interpretation of Rawls' concept of equal liberty: justice wants us to maintain the worth of liberty over time by perpetuating the conditions of its meaningful exercise.

About this title

Synopsis

This contribution to the discussion about obligations to future generations argues that a principle of justice, according to which we must share the environmental resources of the planet with future generations, must be considered to be part of the just basic structure of society. The argument is based on a close study of Rawls' theory of justice and particularly of its treatment of the future generations issue. But the author claims that the affirmation of a principle of justice towards future generations must be accompanied by the attempt to articulate the motives that shape a concern with the fate of future persons in the first place. In order to consider such a principle and further its real chances, we must put the perspective of justice between generations in the context of our view from the present, situated in historical time.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792357566
• ISBN 13: 9780792357568
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 179