“Human Extinction and the Morality of Procreation” Abstract: Many of us believe that human extinction would be catastrophically bad. But why? Part of the explanation is that it would frustrate many or most of the interests of the people who would be alive before or during its occurrence. But if human extinction would r...
“Human Extinction and the Morality of Procreation” Abstract: Many of us believe that human extinction would be catastrophically bad. But why? Part of the explanation is that it would frustrate many or most of the interests of the people who would be alive before or during its occurrence. But if human extinction would really be as bad as many of us think, the main part of the explanation must be that there would be no well-off people when there could have been a vast number of such people for whom it would have been good to exist, and who would have benefited from existing. This, however, suggests that there must be a moral reason to cause people to exist just because their lives would be good for them, and this is in tension not only with common-sense morality but also with widely accepted views in population ethics. The main aim of my talk is to present arguments for the view that there is indeed a moral reason to cause people to exist just because they would have good lives. If these arguments are sound, they should provide firm grounding for common beliefs about the badness of extinction. About the Speaker: Jeff McMahan is Emeritus Sekyra and White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He studied at Oxford and Cambridge and works in normative and applied ethics, political philosophy, and legal theory. He has written about a range of issues concerning harming, killing, and saving. These issues include war, self- and other-defense, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, the metaphysics of personal identity, the metaphysics of death, the evaluation of death, the moral status of animals, causing people to exist, disability, torture, philanthropy, and related subjects. His books include The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life (Oxford, 2002) and Killing in War (Oxford, 2009).
The Kansas Union is a historic and beloved student union on the University of Kansas campus offering large event spaces, study areas, dining options, and student-run programs including a top-rated college radio station. It hosts over 28 reservable spaces across three buildings, making it a central hub for meetings, con...
The Kansas Union is a historic and beloved student union on the University of Kansas campus offering large event spaces, study areas, dining options, and student-run programs including a top-rated college radio station. It hosts over 28 reservable spaces across three buildings, making it a central hub for meetings, conferences, and community events. The venue fosters a strong sense of community and belonging through its welcoming spaces and diverse programming.
