Is Procreation Morally Wrong? Is it Obligatory?

Celebrating the White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy.

This event is part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

Join us to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy.

Population ethics is concerned with how we should reason about what we ought to do when our choices will make a difference to how many individuals, and which individuals, will exist. Beginning with questions about the morality of procreation, Professor Jeff McMahan (White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy) will introduce some of the problems and paradoxes in population ethics and provide an overview of a range of issues in practical ethics to which population ethics is relevant, such as climate change, causing animals to exist in order to eat them, and existential risk. Following Professor McMahan’s introduction there will be a panel debate followed by audience questions.

The event chair will be Alison Hills (Professor of Philosophy; Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, St John’s College).

Panellists are: Jeff McMahan (White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy; Professorial Fellow, Corpus Christi College), John Broome (Emeritus White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy; Emeritus Fellow, Corpus Christi College), and Hilary Greaves (Professor of Philosophy; Supernumerary Fellow, Merton College).

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