Rawls and the Duty to Posterity
Ernest Partridge
Doctoral Dissertation
University of Utah, 1976
(PDF Format -- Adobe Acrobat Required)
TITLE PAGE,
TABLE OF CONTENTS, ABSTRACT & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM
1. The Problem of Posterity.
2 The Posterity Problem in Contemporary Philosophical Thought
3 Some Dimensions of the Problem of Posterity.
4 John Rawls's Theory of Justice: A Preliminary Glance.
5 The Plan of the Dissertation.
II. OBLIGATIONS, DUTIES, RIGHTS.
6 Obligations and Duties.
7 A Taxonomy of Rights
8 Correlativity: Do Rights Entail Duties?
9 Duties Which Entail Rights
10 Duties Without Correlative Rights
11 Correlativity and the Question of Posterity's Rights
III. THE DUTY TO POSTERITY: SOME CONCEPTUAL QUESTIONS
12 Posterity: A Unique Case
13 Duties to the Non-Existent?
14 Duties to the Indefinite Unborn.
15 Can Posterity's "Rights" Be Claimed?
16 "The Right to Exist"
17 The Time Factor
18 Correlativity Again
19 The Posterity Problem: A Summary
Addendum I: Further Thoughts on "The Rights of Future Generations"
Addendum II: The Riddle of the Non-Beethoven – A Postscript.
IV RAWLS'S THEORY OF JUSTICE: A SUMMARY
20 "Justice as Fairness": A Preliminary Assessment
21 Contract Theory.
22 "Reflective Equilibrium"
23 The Original Position.
24 The Principles of Justice .
25 Just Institutions
26 "Goodness as Rationality"
27 Rival Theories: Perfectionism and Utilitarianism.
28. Justice As Fairness: A Meta-ethical Postscript.
V ON DUTIES, RIGHTS, AND "JUSTICE BETWEEN GENERATIONS"
29. Rawls on Obligations, Duties and Rights.
30. Posterity and the Deontological Approach.
31. Posterity and the Original Position.
32. "Just Savings"
33. "Time Preference"
34. Posterity and the "Full Theory of the Good"
VI "JUSTICE BETWEEN GENERATIONS" AND THE ORIGINAL POSITION.
35 "Justice Between Generations": Conceptual Parameters.
36 Justice to Possible Persons .
37 The First and Last Generations.
38 Non-Reciprocity and "The Present Time of Entry Interpretation"
39 "The Heads of Families" Condition.
40 The Span of Responsibility.
Addendum: The Problem of "Pure Time Preference"
VII FROM "JUST SAVINGS" TO "JUST PROVISION".
41 Beyond "Just Savings"
42 Just Savings and the Ecological Perspective.
43 "Self Transcendence": A Proposal.
44 Is Self-Transcendence a Primary Good?
45 Rawls and Self-Transcendence.
46 Just Provision as an Abstract Principle of Justice.
47 Just Provision as a Practical Principle of Justice.
48 Summing Up: The "Guiding Questions" Revisited.
POSTSCRIPT: IN RETROSPECT, 2001
REFERENCES
APPENDIX I:
"Should We Seek a Better Future?"
(Ethics and the Environment,
3:1)
APPENDIX II: "On Civic Friendship"
(2000) (Unpublished).
JOHN RAWLS -- A
TRIBUTE: (Published in
Free Inquiry,
March, 2004)
