Parfit — Can we harm future people whose existence depends on our choice?
The question that opens it
If a better policy would have meant that this person never existed, can the present policy be said to make that person worse off?
- 1
The nonidentity problem arises when different long-term policies cause different people to exist, frustrating a purely person-affecting account of harm as making someone worse off than otherwise.
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This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.
The Nonidentity Problem
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §1 The Problem; policy and future-person cases
Open source
- 2
There is no consensus on criticizing choices that create people with worthwhile but worse lives; proposals appeal to rights, thresholds, non-comparative harm, or impersonal principles.
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This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.
The Nonidentity Problem
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §2–§4, proposed solutions and remaining problems
Open source