Intergenerational Justice and Equality

Abstract

Abstract Egalitarians hold that people should be equal with respect to some morally relevant factor. While this does not imply that all inequalities should be eliminated, egalitarians do generally require that divergences from equality are presumptively worse unless special reasons render the resultant inequalities justifiable. In intergenerational contexts, egalitarianism faces special problems. While many ethicists and political theorists have emphasized the value of equality among contemporaries, there are reasons for skepticism about the value of equality between generations, or between persons who live at different times and whose lives may not even overlap. Strict principles of intergenerational equality would forbid progress and development that would improve circumstances in the future but would therefore create intergenerational inequalities by making later generations better off than earlier ones. This chapter considers aspects of the general case for egalitarianism, with specific focus on the value of equality between generations and over time.