Climate change and the Non-Identity Problem in Derek Parfit’s work

• Thesis title in Czech: Klimatická změna a problém neidentity v díle Dereka Parfita
• Thesis title in English: Climate change and the Non-Identity Problem in Derek Parfit’s work
• Key words: Derek Parfit|problém neidentity|klimatická změna|globální oteplování|odpudivý závěr|újma|benefit|etika klimatické změny|environmentální etika|populační etika
• English key words: Derek Parfit|Non-Identity Problem|climate change|global warming|Repugnant Conclusion|harm|benefit|climate change ethics|environmental ethics|population ethics
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2021/2022
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies (21-UFAR)
• Supervisor: doc. Jakub Jirsa, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 07.03.2022
• Date of assignment: 07.03.2022
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 16.03.2022
• Date and time of defence: 02.02.2023 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 22.12.2022
• Date of proceeded defence: 02.02.2023
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Tomáš Hříbek, Ph.D.

Guidelines

I intend to explore with Derek Parfit how we can coherently explain that some acts are bad even though they do not harm future people because of the Non-Identity Problem. I would like to relate this theoretical question to the example of global warming and climate change, which Parfit considers in different contexts. I will use this example in the form defined by Jeff McMahan in his article Climate Change, War, and the Non-Identity Problem (as the Same Number Choice). Firstly I will describe the nature of the Non-Identity Problem and its relevance for climate change example. Then I will show how Parfit fails to solve it in his first book Reasons and Persons and ends up with the Repugnant Conclusion or Absurd Conclusions. Then I want to investigate what solution – so-called Theory X, brings Parfit on a table in his last unfinished article Future People, the Non-Identity Problem, and Person-Affecting Principles, and whether this solution can help to explain the badness of causing global warming. I would like to argue that Parfit formulated an approach by which he can fix the deficiencies of the Person-Affecting Principles if applied to the case of climate change. My intended project is descriptive, I am interested in the explanation of badness in Non-Identity cases and that does not involve Parfit’s normative theory. Furthermore, I do not hope to fully solve whether Parfit found complete Theory X, I will focus only on specifically defined example of climate change.

References

Boonin, David. „Parfit and the Non-Identity Problem“. In Gardiner, Stephen (vyd.), Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics (dosud nepublikováno).

Boonin, David. The Non-Identity Problem and the Ethics of Future People. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Broome, John. „Discounting the Future“. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 23 (1994), s. 128–156.

McMahan, Jeff. „Climate Change, War, and the Non-Identity Problem“. Journal of Moral Philosophy 18 (2021), s. 211-238.

Nedevska, Jasmina. „The non-identity problem in climate ethics: A restatement“. Intergenerational Justice Review 2 (2019), s. 63-68.

Parfit, Derek. „Future People, the Non-Identity Problem, and Person-Affecting Principles“. Philosophy & Public Affairs 45 (2017), s. 118-157.

Parfit, Derek. Reasons and Persons. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.

Williston, Byron. The Ethics of Climate Change: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2019.