Allen Habib | Sustainability as Inter-Generational Sharing | Philosophy Speaker Series

One traditional view is that sustainability is a matter of inter-generational distribution of the common good that is the earth among the different generations of people on it. I contrast the justice in distribution relation with another relation of justice: sharing. Distributive justice is determined by the nature and relations of the members of the distribution pool to one another, justice in sharing is determined by the relation between the pool members and the good(s) to be shared. I argue that sustainability is really a matter of sharing the earth between generations, rather than distributing it, because people have claims to the earth itself, rather than claims on distant (possible) future people.

Allen Habib is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary. His research interests include ethics, environmental ethics, philosophy of law, and political and social philosophy. He has published in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy.

This presentation will take via Zoom only: