
THE RIGHTS OF FUTURE GENERATIONS, PHILOSOPHY AND BIOETHICS
Protecting the future of our future and protecting the future human condition opens the door to quite delicate ethical and theoretical arguments.
Hans Jonas set the tone as follows:
“Because our actions may have apocalyptic consequences, this lack of teleological [protection of the future] knowledge accentuates its urgency more than at any other stage of the human adventure. Unfortunately, urgency does not equal success. On the contrary, it must be admitted that seeking wisdom today requires a great deal of madness. The very nature of our time, which loudly calls for an ethical theory, gives the suspicious impression that it is a question of doing the impossible. But we have no alternative but to try it”, H. Jonas “Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on the New Tasks of Ethics”, University of Chicago Press, 1974, pp. 163-184.
The Normandy Chair for Peace will convene a workshop in June 2020 -11/12, in Marseille, to bring together a number of the leading programme on the philosophies and the bioethics on the Future Generations.
The Normandy for Peace Chair welcomes internationally renowned researchers in order to move forward with this fundamental ethics research. In early 2020 a doctoral fellowship will be focused specifically on ethical research.
The NCP will work with Universities in China, in particular Wuhan University on the legal principles of ecological civilization. We will explore joint research on how to protect and restore the environment for Future Generations in China.