non-identity problem Archives

Sam Woolfe February 17, 2025

Do We Have a Moral Obligation to Continue the Human Race?

In philosophy, the ‘non-identity problem’ refers to what our moral obligations to future individuals should be, that is, to those who do not yet exist. It is a problem in moral philosophy because, typically, the ethical rightness or wrongness of an action is evaluated in terms of how it affects someone (who exists). To summarise…

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Thinking About the Ethics of Procreation in Terms of Risk

To the philosopher Rivka Weinberg, we need to think about the moral permissibility of procreation in terms of risk. In her book The Risk of a Lifetime: How, When, and Why Procreation May Be Permissible (2015), she presents a conservative position on the ethics of procreation, deviating from both the strong antinatalist position which says…

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Do We Have a Moral Obligation to Continue the Human Race?

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Thinking About the Ethics of Procreation in Terms of Risk

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