The Oxford Handbook of Population Ethics

The Oxford Handbook of Population Ethics presents up-to-date theoretical analyses of various problems associated with the moral standing of future people and animals in current decision-making. Future people pose an especially hard problem for our current decision-making, since their number
and their identities are not fixed but depend on the choices the present generation makes. Do we make the world better by creating more people with good lives? What do we owe future generations in terms of justice? How should burdens and benefits be shared across generations so that justice
prevails? These questions are philosophically difficult and important, but also directly relevant to many practical decisions and policies. Climate change policy provides an example, as the increasing global temperature will kill some people and prevent many others from ever existing. Many other
policies also influence the size and make-up of future populations both directly and indirectly, for example those concerning family planning, child support, and prioritization in health-care. If we are to adequately assess these policies, we must be able to determine the value of differently sized
populations.

The essays in this handbook shed light on the value of population change and the nature of our obligations to future generations. It brings together world-leading philosophers to introduce readers to some of the paradoxes of population ethics, challenge some fundamental assumptions that may be taken
for granted in the debate about the value of population change, and apply these problems and assumptions to real-world decisions.


Author: Gustaf Arrhenius
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 04/08/2022
Pages: 648
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.95lbs
Size: 9.70h x 6.90w x 2.00d
ISBN: 9780190907686

About the Author

Gustaf Arrhenius is the Director of the Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, and Professor of Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University.

Krister Bykvist is a Professor of Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm.

Tim Campbell is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm.

Elizabeth Finneron-Burns is Assistant Professor of Political Theory at the University of Western Ontario and an Affiliated Researcher at the Institute for Future Studies in Stockholm.