Time and the generations: population ethics for a diminishing planet

Table of Content

In Memoriam: Kenneth Joseph Arrow (1921–2017)
Foreword, by Robert M. Solow
Preface
Random Thoughts on “Birth and Death,” by Kenneth J. Arrow
Birth and Death: Arrow Lecture
1. Economic Demography
2. Utilitarian Ethics
3. Ends and Means
4. Synopsis
Part I: Foundations
5. Genesis Under Total Utilitarianism
6. Death
7. A Problem Like Sleeping Beauty
8. Generation-Centered Prerogatives in the Timeless World
9. Generations Across the Indefinite Future
Part II: Applications
10. The Biosphere as a Renewable Natural Resource
11. Estimates of Globally Optimum Population
12. Technology and Institutions
13. Existential Risks and Informed Ends
Appendix 1: Socially-Embedded Well-Being Functions
Appendix 2: Common Property Resources and Reproductive Choices
Appendix 3: Notes on Rawls’ Principle of Just Saving
Appendix 4: Modeling the Biosphere
Appendix 5: Inclusive Wealth and Social Well-Being
Appendix 6: Valuing Freedom of Choice
References
Commentary on Birth and Death, by Scott Barrett
Commentary on Birth and Death, by Eric Maskin
Commentary on Birth and Death, by Joseph Stiglitz
Response to Commentaries
Epilogue
Socially Embedded Preferences, Environmental Externalities, and Reproductive Rights, with Aisha Dasgupta—Reprinted from Population and Development Review (September 2017)
Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index

How should we evaluate the ethics of procreation, especially the environmental consequences of reproductive decisions on future generations, in a resource-constrained world? While demographers, moral philosophers, and environmental scientists have separately discussed the implications of population size for sustainability, no one has attempted to synthesize the concerns and values of these approaches. The culmination of a half-century of engagement with population ethics, Partha Dasgupta’s masterful Time and the Generations blends economics, philosophy, and ecology to offer an original lens on the difficult topic of the optimum global population.
After offering careful attention to global inequality and the imbalance of power between men and women, Dasgupta provides tentative answers to two fundamental questions: What level of economic activity can our planet support over the long run, and what does the answer say about optimum population numbers? He develops population ethics that can be used to evaluate our choices and guide our sense of a sustainable global population and living standards. Structured around a central essay from Dasgupta, the book also features a foreword from Robert Solow; correspondence with Kenneth Arrow; incisive commentaries from Joseph Stiglitz, Eric Maskin, and Scott Barrett; an extended response by the author to them; and a joint paper with Aisha Dasgupta on inequalities in reproductive decisions and the idea of reproductive rights. Taken together, Time and the Generations represents a fascinating dialogue between world-renowned economists on a central issue of our time.

http://cup.columbia.edu/book/time-and-the-generations/9780231160124