Irreversible Loss

In: Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics. Ed. Stephen Gardiner. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2022. Oxford Scholarship Online.

This chapter offers three reasons for trying to avoid some irreversible losses. First, there is a prudential reason for avoiding irreversible loss in order to keep options open in the future in the face of uncertainty. Second, humans have reasons to care about the preservation of some goods, even beyond their own life. Third, present generations may have duties towards future generations to avoid some irreversible losses, though spelling out such theories of intergenerational ethics or justice is challenging. Finally, the chapter responds to the objection that – in a certain sense – all processes are irreversible and the notion therefore empty. A sensible conception of irreversibility is offered that avoids this concern.