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Tim Mulgan introduces a new thought experiment, which takes the form of a challenging possible future: the world will end in two hundred years, and humanity faces unavoidable but not immediate extinction. He presents imaginary discussions, within this slowly ending world, of such topics as the meaning of life and the purpose of the universe.
List of contents
- Prologue: Life at humanity's end
- Introduction
- Cast of Characters
- 1: First Debate: Pessimism for an ending world: the meaning of life in the face of oblivion
- 2: Second Debate: Religion for a Post-Cataclysm World
- 3: Lecture One: Introducing Multigenerationalism
- 4: Lecture Two: Introducing Procreative Ethics
- 5: Lecture Three: Weinberg's Contractualist Procreative Ethic
- 6: Lecture Four: Collective Consequentialist Procreative Ethics
- 7: Lecture Five: Moral Progress, Transformation, and Imaginativeness
- 8: Lecture Six: Post-Cataclysm Utopias
- 9: Third Debate: Virtual Endings and Digital Futures
- Conclusion: Lessons from an Ending World
About the author
Tim Mulgan was educated at the Universities of Otago and Oxford, where he wrote his DPhil thesis under the supervision of Derek Parfit, Bernard Williams, and Roger Crisp. He is currently Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy at the University of St Andrews and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland. He is the author of The Demands of Consequentialism (Oxford, 2001), Future People (Oxford, 2006), Ethics for a Broken World (Acumen, 2011), and Purpose in the Universe (Oxford, 2015).
Summary
Tim Mulgan introduces a new thought experiment, which takes the form of a challenging possible future: the world will end in two hundred years, and humanity faces unavoidable but not immediate extinction. He presents imaginary discussions, within this slowly ending world, of such topics as the meaning of life and the purpose of the universe.
Additional text
The book develops a detailed and thoroughly argued account of present obligations to future persons, aiming to think through traditions, values, and goals for generations to come.
