Time and Ethics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Heather Dyke

      Pages 1-7

3. At the Time/Ethics Intersection

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

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   2. What Moral Realism Can Learn from the Philosophy of Time

      • Heather Dyke

      Pages 11-25

   3. Prudence, Identity, and Value

      • Ramon Das

      Pages 27-39

4. The Ethical Significance of Temporal Location

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 41-41

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   2. Moral Realism and Infinite Spacetime Imply Moral Nihilism

      • Quentin Smith

      Pages 43-54

   3. Time and Punishment

      • Michael J. Zimmerman

      Pages 55-70

   4. Intergenerational Responsibilities and the Interests of the Dead

      • Janna Thompson

      Pages 71-83

   5. Time and Well-Being

      • Andrew Moore

      Pages 85-97

   6. Ethics and Temporality: When are Moral Propositions True?

      • Peter Caws

      Pages 99-114

   7. The Moral Relevance of Past Preferences

      • Krister Bykvist

      Pages 115-136

   8. Saying and Showing the Good

      • Panayot Butchvarov

      Pages 137-158

5. Persons as Temporal and Ethical Beings

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-159

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   2. Personal Identity, Responsibility and Time

      • L. Nathan Oaklander

      Pages 161-178

   3. Empathy, Immediacy, and Morality

      • Michael Slote

      Pages 179-188

   4. Persons in Time: Metaphysics and Ethics

      • T. D. J. Chappell

      Pages 189-207

   5. The Non-Identity Problem

      • Tim Mulgan

      Pages 209-218

   6. Diachronic Obligation

      • William Grey

      Pages 219-235

6. Back Matter

   Pages 237-241

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Ethics seeks answers to questions about the moral status of human actions and human lives. Actions and lives are temporal things. Thus, one would think that answers to ethical questions should take some account of their temporal features. And yet, while a number of authors have drawn attention to the relation between time and ethics (Derek Parfit and Thomas Nagel in particular), there has never been a systematic study of the impact of temporal considerations on ethical issues. There is a pressing need for an investigation into how time and ethics impact on each other. This book leads the way in addressing that need. The essays in this collection raise and investigate some of the key issues that arise at the intersection between these two areas of philosophy. Anyone with an interest in ethics, (undergraduates, postgraduates and professional philosophers alike), will have a reason to read this book, as will anyone with an interest in the metaphysics of time, and how it connects with issues in other areas of philosophy.

• ethics
• issue
• knowledge
• metaphysics
• morality
• philosophy

• University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

  Heather Dyke

Policies and ethics