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Forums – Regular meetings – meet at 6:30 at the Panera Bread Co. community room (875 Bethel Road). Also be sure to check out – and like –  “Columbus Futurists” on Facebook!

Forum: April 26, 2018

Topic: “What We Owe Future Generations”

Don Hubin, emeritus professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Ethics and Human Values at Ohio State, will lead our discussion.  Almost everyone believes that we have duties to benefit future generations. But it has turned out to be much more difficult than anyone imagined to adequately account for those duties within standard moral theories. 

• Are they duties of justice? Perhaps our duties toward future generations aren’t duties of justice but are, like duties of justice, duties owed to the beneficiaries—the future generations? But how is it possible to now have duties owed to people who do not now exist?  
• Perhaps our duties with regard to future generations aren’t owed to those generations even though it is members of those generations that benefit from our fulfilling our duties; perhaps our duties with regard to future generations are duties of beneficence. And, how should the well-being of future generations be weighed against the costs to those alive today in our moral calculations?
• Finally, most would agree that, at a minimum, we should not harm future generations. But is it even possible for us to harm future individuals by our actions when their very existence depends on those actions? 

 

Also in Print: 

Columbus Futurists were profiled in a recent edition of the Columbus Dispatch’s special project CbusNEXT.  A reporter visited and reported on the November meeting (“Big History”) and interviewed convener David Staley.  Check out the story online: “Columbus Futurists gather to anticipate what might be ahead.”

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