Our Obligations to Future Generations

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Recommended: Importance of obligation

“It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”

(Clifford 1877: 346)

The notion of possible preventative actions from man-made catastrophes drives people to believe that we need to take obligations in creating a better life for future generations. Despite the high possibility of present-day people to prevent future people to experience any suffering, I shall argue that future generations—who have neither reciprocal interactions with this generation nor power to influence our well-being—do not own the rights upon obligation from present people. I contend that it is impossible for people from this generation to have obligations to future generation.

In the first place, obligations is a socially-constructed concept, which develops by reciprocal relations among members of a community. Thereby, it is not a naturally-given concept. Obligation is constructed gradually among people in a community; who share daily interaction, cultural interaction, and moral similarity (de-Shalit 1995: 22). The intense interactions—usually involving common experience, history and value—generate a sense of belonging among the people. That sense of belonging constructs a reciprocal relation, gradually shaping the ‘take and give’ connection, which is later defined as ‘obligation’ and ‘right’.

Obligations that one holds later define his or her identity in relation to the community he or she belongs to. Drawing the link between identity and community, strengthen the argument that we do not have obligation to future people; simply because our identity shaped by personal encounter to society in the real world —a place where future generations not or not yet belong to.

A person is conceived as bou...

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...iety: Essays in Honour of H. L. A Hart, ed. P. M. S. Hacker and J. Raz. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)

De Shalit, Avner. 1995. Why Posterity Matters. (London: Routledge)

Kavka, Gregory. 1982. “The Paradox of Individual.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 11, pp. 93-112

Lavrentsova, E. 2010. “Primary Dimension of Stratification.” Trakia Journal of Sciences, vol. 8, pp. 254-257

Mead, G. H. 1934. Mind, self, and society. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)

Narveson, Jan. 1978. “Future People and Us.” in Obligation to Future Generations, ed. R.I. Sikora and Brian Barry. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press)

Scanlon. T.M. 1998. What We Owe to Each Other. (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)

Waren, Mary. 1978. “Do Potential People Have Moral Rights?” in Obligation to Future Generations, ed. R.I. Sikora and Brian Barry. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press)

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