RE: Moral Obligations toward Possible Worlds
May 7, 2021 at 4:24 pm
(This post was last modified: May 7, 2021 at 4:58 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
There is also a moral argument against abortion with respect to a present and future world that affirms it as a relevant evil - but also includes other equivalent and competing responsibilities to present and future.
That abortion is bad and forced birth is worse. I think I have a tendency to look for these because the pessimistic view is easier to narrativize to skeptics.
On to the other side of it? If we do have climate responsibilities to some future world - do those climate responsibilities whatever they are demand or justify (or demand and justify) that we harm a person in the present in order to service those future goals?
I'm allllll the way up this one's dark nooks and crannies, farther than I wanted to be. Environmental responsibility has become the organizing principle of every aspect of my professional life. Oddly, it's harder to get a handle on the personal life. Because I believe in those responsibilities, I think that there's a moral imperative to defer to present realities in order to actualize such a future.
If we kill the people today, we can't save them tomorrow, and if we kill some of the people today, it's going to be harder for us to save the rest tomorrow. With respect to either abortion or climate - I'd say that the work to do...if you're against abortion or against environmental dystopia - is to work to resolve objections to your pitch. If, when we try to convince people that abortion is bad because it's a shit non life for a kid nd someone says "nuh uh, life might be a shit life for that kid" - that's a valid concern. I think we can all see how it could be true (even if we don't believe that it is, at present). If the objection to climate action is that it would make life shittier in the present..that is also a valid concern for equivalent reasons. People invested in either should begin by working to resolve that.
That abortion is bad and forced birth is worse. I think I have a tendency to look for these because the pessimistic view is easier to narrativize to skeptics.
On to the other side of it? If we do have climate responsibilities to some future world - do those climate responsibilities whatever they are demand or justify (or demand and justify) that we harm a person in the present in order to service those future goals?
I'm allllll the way up this one's dark nooks and crannies, farther than I wanted to be. Environmental responsibility has become the organizing principle of every aspect of my professional life. Oddly, it's harder to get a handle on the personal life. Because I believe in those responsibilities, I think that there's a moral imperative to defer to present realities in order to actualize such a future.
If we kill the people today, we can't save them tomorrow, and if we kill some of the people today, it's going to be harder for us to save the rest tomorrow. With respect to either abortion or climate - I'd say that the work to do...if you're against abortion or against environmental dystopia - is to work to resolve objections to your pitch. If, when we try to convince people that abortion is bad because it's a shit non life for a kid nd someone says "nuh uh, life might be a shit life for that kid" - that's a valid concern. I think we can all see how it could be true (even if we don't believe that it is, at present). If the objection to climate action is that it would make life shittier in the present..that is also a valid concern for equivalent reasons. People invested in either should begin by working to resolve that.
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