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Cover image for book Preparing for the Future

Preparing for the Future

An Essay on the Rights of Future Generations
By:John Ahrens
Publisher:Taylor & Francis
Print ISBN:9781138530669
eText ISBN:9781000678758
Edition:1
Copyright:1985
Format:Reflowable

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Does the present generation have a moral obligation to conserve resources for future generations? Must we accept drastic reductions in our standard of living, and give up the ideals of individual liberty and technological progress in order to preserve the environment? PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE offers an unfashionably optimistic answer to these questions: that future generations cannot have a right to a share of existing resources, because only living persons can have rights. Rejecting the sacrifices that most traditional ethical principles would require of us, it advocates, instead, that members of the present generation may legitimately use all of the resources at their disposal to realize their own values.