Prokofiev, A. V. Protection of Future Generation Interests: Utilitarian Perspective

Abstract: The given article analyzes pluses and minuses of the utilitarian ethics as the grounds for moral criteria of the decision making process which touches the interests of future generations. The author shows that utilitarianism does not have any difficulties with involvement of future generations into the moral community and this is the advantage compared to moral conceptions based on agreement. However, it also requires the discounting of future benefits and costs which in its turn demands special ethical grounds. The author shows the conditional and situation nature of all arguments for the benefit of discounting and makes a conclusion that utilitarian approach cannot be the only one officially recognized methodology of ethics of the future. Utilitarian methods of decision making process including the analysis of benefits and costs play an important role in social and ethical researches dedicated to the problem of protection of interests of future generations but they must be combined with other ways and methods of discovering of the public good from the point of view of generation relations.

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