Reparative futures in a thick, virtuous present

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Reparative action is often justified by appealing to consequentialist or deontological ethics. This paper argues that these ethics are dependent on an assumed continuity between the present and the future, and, further, that this assumption is not warranted in the face of a complex and uncertain future. If this is the case, actions taken to repair historic and emerging harms may lack justification. To strengthen the case for reparative action, this paper describes an alternative approach, one based on virtue ethics, and suggests that virtuous action can be imagined taking place within a ‘thick present’. Reparative action, on this account, can be justified by appealing to the degree to which it addresses human flourishing, without having to depend on an unreliable future. This focus on the present does not foreclose a reparative future, but instead re-orients our relationship to it: reparative futures, on this account, become utopian lodestones that affirm our need to work for justice and repair, while the actions we take to bring them about can be justified through an appeal towards what matters in the present. But working in a thick, virtuous present is not without its own risks, and the paper describes some of the challenges that arise.