Responsibility towards Future Generations and Its Hierarchical Structure

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the hierarchical structure of the argument justifying the responsibility towards future generations. As a preliminary, the author considers the concept and structure of responsibility and the difficulties in the concept of future generations, investigating the two cases: one is the UNESCO “Declaration on the Responsibilities of the Present Generations Towards Future Generations” and the other is Hans Jonas’ book Das Prinzip Verantwortung. The main points are as follows. (1) While the UNESCO “Declaration” employs the fairness theory approach, Jonas employs the ontological approach. (2) The reason for this difference comes from the different conceptualizations of the ground of responsibility. The UNESCO “Declaration”’, on the one hand, claims that the present generations have the responsibility to safeguard the needs and interests of future generations and to transmit in a fair manner to them the survival conditions which are not irreversibly damaged by human activities. On the other hand, Jonas insists that the responsibility towards future generations is to ensure not only the survival conditions of future generations, but also the very existence of future generations, that is to say, the permanence of “the idea of human beings’. (3) It is necessary to distinguish and justify respectively these two hierarchical levels of the responsibility towards future generations. The hierarchical structure of the responsibility makes clear that the ground of responsibility depends on the norm of responsibility. The responsibility for the survival conditions is based on the existing modern understanding of the world. In contrast, the responsibility for the existence of future generations demands a fundamental change of the very understanding of it.