Non-Identity Problem

Question 1

Describe the non-identity problem

Answer 1

Non-identity problem: certain actions you take in the present necessarily impact the number and identity of future generations, how can you say that an action makes some future people better/worse-off when that action changes the set of people who are supposedly harmed/bettered from the set of people that would have been affected if no change was made. If the set of people is different then action doesn’t impact the well-being of the group of people who would otherwise not have existed. The question revolves around who is harmed? (PARFIT)

Question 2

Name some non-identity problem scenarios

Answer 2

• 14yo conceiving a child - higher risks of disability
• conceiving a disabled child now or waiting two months to conceive a healthy child
• Nuclear policy that will cause people who would otherwise not have been born to die at 40 from radiation
• Depletion case e.g. climate change and future generations

Question 3

How does Heyd show that the problem is not as big as one may think?

Answer 3

in many cases an act that creates a low wellbeing level for a person whose existence depends on that act will also create low wellbeing levels for people whose existences are independent of that act. but he notes that this is not the case for everything (some depletion cases)