Why Worry About Future Generations? (Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics)

by Samuel Scheffler

To be sure, the love of humanity differs from the love of particular people we know, just as a love of literature differs from the love of one’s dog. In general, love varies as its objects vary. The love of humanity does not consist in a love of future individuals as individuals. Instead, it comprehends a range of attitudes and dispositions. These include a deep desire that the chain of human generations should extend into the indefinite future under conditions conducive to human flourishing, and a disposition to emotions like profound sadness at the prospect of humanity’s imminent disappearance. None of these desires or dispositions is rendered irrational or inappropriate by our lack of knowledge of the identities of the particular people who will live in the future or even by uncertainty about whether they will exist at all.