Lecture
CPP Annual Lecture "On Blinding Future Generations: A Neglected Site of Environmental Injustice"
- Date
- Thursday 15 May 2025
- Time
- Location
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 0.03
The Centre of Political Philosophy is pleased to announce their annual lecture by Catriona McKinnon, professor at the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter.
Professor McKinnon is a political philosopher working on environmental ethics and climate justice with a particular focus on what we owe to future people in the face of our multiple environmental crises.
Abstract
People currently alive face multiple and monumental environmental crises. Dangerous climate change is accelerating. Biodiversity is collapsing globally. The oceans are dying. The stakes for future people – and life on Earth – are high. Worryingly, from an ethical point of view, a fundamental dimension of our environmental challenges may have been neglected. This relates to the ways in which any generation in the present can fail to understand the extent and nature of the degradation of their environmental circumstances because previous generations have blinded them to this. Core cases include the decay of environmental knowledge in future generations as a result of ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ accelerated by what is done by earlier generations. ‘Intergenerational environmental blinding’ could seriously shackle future people in their attempts to address environmental collapse. Any ethically acceptable solutions to our environmental crises must address the grave threat posed by intergenerational blinding.
While in the Netherlands, Prof. McKinnon will also participate in a Book Manuscript Workshop in Rotterdam, titled Endangering humanity: an international crime
Tuesday 13th May 2025, 15.45-19:00
Location: Langeveld 4.16, Erasmus University of Rotterdam
To register for the book workshop follow this link. For further details on the book workshop, contact Dr. Laura García-Portela: garciaportela@esphil.eur.nl
About the Center for Political Philosophy (CPP) Colloquia Series
The CPP is a collaboration between the Institute for Philosophy and the Institute for Political Science at Leiden University. Attendance of the Colloquia is free and there is no need to register. See CPP for more information. For further questions please contact dr. Tim Meijers at t.meijers@hum.leidenuniv.nl
All are welcome!