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Essay / Our Obligations to Future Generations - 894
“It is always wrong, everywhere and for everyone, to believe anything based on insufficient evidence. » (Clifford 1877: 346) The notion of possible preventive actions against man-made disasters motivates us. people to believe that we must take on obligations to create a better life for future generations. Despite the great opportunity for people today to prevent future people from experiencing any suffering, I will argue that future generations – who have neither reciprocal interactions with this generation nor power to influence our well-being – do not have the rights to obligations of those present. I argue that it is impossible for people of this generation to have obligations to the future generation. First, obligations are a socially constructed concept, which develops through reciprocal relationships between members of a community. It is therefore not a natural concept. The obligation is gradually built between the members of a community; who share daily interaction, cultural interaction and moral similarity (de-Shalit 1995: 22). Intense interactions – usually involving shared experience, history and values – generate a sense of belonging among people. This sense of belonging builds a reciprocal relationship, gradually shaping the “taking and giving” bond, which is then defined as “obligation” and “right.” The obligations that one later assumes define his or her identity in relation to the community in which he or she belongs. By establishing the connection between identity and community, reinforce the argument that we have no obligation to future people; quite simply because our identity is shaped by a personal encounter with real-world society, a place to which future generations do not belong or not yet. A person is conceived as a bou...... middle of paper ......iety: Essays in Honor of HL A Hart, ed. PMS Hacker and J. Raz. (Oxford: Clarendon Press) De Shalit, Avner. 1995. Why posterity matters. (London: Routledge) Kavka, Gregory. 1982. “The Paradox of the Individual.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 11, pp. 93-112Lavrentsova, E. 2010. “Primary dimension of stratification”. Trakia Science Journal, Vol. 8, pp. 254-257 Mead, GH 1934. Mind, self and society. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)Narveson, January 1978. “The People of the Future and Us.” in Obligation to Future Generations, ed. RI Sikora and Brian Barry. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press) Scanlon. TM 1998. What we owe to each other. (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)Waren, Mary. 1978. “Do Potential Persons Have Moral Rights?” in Obligation to Future Generations, ed. RI Sikora and Brian Barry. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press)