Population Ethics 3501-POPETH-S
Since the publication of the famous “Essay on the Principle of Population” by Thomas Malthus modern thought and policies are periodically haunted by apocalyptic visions of overpopulation. Such “Malthusian” worries were both conditioned by and inspiring for a number of governmental practices and forms of knowledge (e.g. historical demography or environmentalism). Perhaps the latest of this inspiration is population ethics – a young (originating in the beginning of the 1980s) sub-discipline of bioethics devoted to philosophical study of ethical problems that arise when actions or politics affect not only presently living individuals but whole populations and future generation. Population ethics is based on the observation that any opinion or action concerning the optimal number of people depends on the identification of the correct population axiology: a ranking of states of affairs in terms of goodness, where the states of affairs in question differ not only in the quality of life that people enjoy but also in the number of people who will ever exist. Developed by analytically-oriented philosophers, population ethics has until now been dominated by different versions of utilitarianism. The seminar will be devoted to presentation of these variants of population axiologies and to their critical evaluation. We will discuss implications that different ethical theories may have for such governmental practices as healthcare prioritization, demographic policy and retirement plans.
The course covers following topics:
A. Population as an object of knowledge and power:
1. Overpopulation: ethical implications of the concept.
2. Populations as an object of state governing.
3. Historical demography.
4. The ethics of globalization.
B. Contemporary population ethics.
5. Obligations to future generations.
6. Derek Parfit and „The Repugnat Conclusion”.
7. Average vs total utilitarianism in population ethics.
8. The impossiblity theorems for population axiologies.
9. Moral uncertainty and governing populations.
C. Practical population ethics.
10. Health care: individual vs. population level bioethics.
11. Population control: coercive vs. passive methods.
12. Ethical challenges of the aging populations.
D. In search for non-utilitarian population axiology.
13. Roberto Esposito: communitas vs. population.
14. Étienne Balibar’s concept of equaliberty and population ethics.
Type of course
Mode
Learning outcomes
At the end of the seminar student (knowledge):
has the knowledge and understanding of ethical problems in population-level polices;
is acquainted with the main axiological standpoints within contemporary population ethics;
has the knowledge of general historical and political background of the emergence of human populations as an object/subject of ethics.
At the end of the seminar student (skills):
can critically analyze text discussed during the seminar
can construct normative arguments related to problems concerning human populations;
can apply different population axiologies to cases and problems analyzed during the seminar.
At the end of the seminar student (social competences):
appreciates the importance of ethical dilemmas related to governing human populations.
Assessment criteria
The final grade will be based on:
Attendance and activity in class: 40%
Individual written case/problem analysis or essay: 30%
Group-prepared oral presentation of case/problem analysis: 30%
Bibliography
1. T. Robertson, The Malthusian Moment. Global Population Growth and the Birth of American Environmentalism, Rutgers University Press, 2012.
2. M. Foucault, Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France 1977/1978, Picador/Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
3. Paul-André Rosental “The Novelty of an Old Genre: Louis Henry and the Founding of Historical Demography”, Population, vol. 58(1), 2003.
4. P. Singer, One World: The Ethics of Globalization, Yale University Press, 2002.
5. R. I. Sikora, B. Barry, Obligations to Future Generations, Temple University Press, 1978.
6. D. Parfit, Reasons and Persons, Ch. 17. “The Repugnant Conclusion”, Clarendon Press, 1984.
7. J. A. McMahan, “Problems of Population Theory”, Ethics, vol. 92(1), 1981.
8. G. Arrhenius, 2000a, “An Impossibility Theorem for Welfarist Axiology”, Economics and Philosophy, vol. 16, 2000.
9. T. Lockhart, Moral Uncertainty and Its Consequences, Oxford University Press, 2009.
10. O. A. Arah, “On the relationship between individual and population health”, Med Health Care Philos, vol. 12(3), 2009.
11. D. L. Rust, “The Ethics of Controlling Population Growth in the Developing World”, Intersect, vol.3(1), 2010.
12. S. K. Wisensale, „Global Aging and Intergenerational Equity”, Journal of Intergenerational Relationship, vol. 1(1), 2003.
13. R. Esposito, Communitas. The Origin and Destiny of Community, Stanford University Press, 2010.
14. É. Balibar, Equaliberty: Political Essays, Duke University Press, 2014.
The seminar is a part of dr Swianiewicz’s research project “Population Ethics in the Light of Theories of Biopolitics” (founded by NCN) and will be conducted directly after a research trip to Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford. The exact reading list may change as a result of studies undertaken during this trip.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: