Books by Axel Gosseries
Ageing without Ageism? Conceptual Puzzles and Policy Proposals (OUP, 2023)
Oxford University Press, 2023
Ageing without Ageism? contributes to the essential and timely discussion of age, ageism, populat... more Ageing without Ageism? contributes to the essential and timely discussion of age, ageism, population ageing, and public policy. It demonstrates the breadth of the challenges posed by these issues by covering a wide range of policy areas: from health care to old-age support, from democratic participation to education, and from family to fiscal policy. With contributions from 21 authors the discussion bridges the gap between academia and public life by putting in dialogue fresh philosophical analysis and specific new policy proposals. It approaches familiar issues like age discrimination, justice between age groups, and democratic participation across the ages from novel perspectives.
What is Intergenerational Justice? (Polity, 2023)
Polity, 2023
Can people alive now have duties to future generations, the unborn millions? If so, what do we ow... more Can people alive now have duties to future generations, the unborn millions? If so, what do we owe them? What does “justice” mean in an intergenerational context, both between people who will coexist at some point, and between generations that will never overlap?
In this book, Axel Gosseries provides a forensic examination of these issues, comparing and analyzing various views about what we owe our successors. He discusses links between justice and sustainability, and looks at the implications of the fact that our successors’ preferences are heavily influenced by what we will actually leave them and by the education they receive. He also points to how these theoretical considerations apply to real-life issues, ranging from pension reform and Brexit to biodiversity and the climate crisis. He ends by outlining how intergenerational considerations may translate into institutional design.
Anyone grappling with the dilemmas of our obligations to the future, from students and scholars to policy makers and active citizens, will find this an invaluable theoretical and practical guide to this moral and political minefield
In this book, Axel Gosseries provides a forensic examination of these issues, comparing and analyzing various views about what we owe our successors. He discusses links between justice and sustainability, and looks at the implications of the fact that our successors’ preferences are heavily influenced by what we will actually leave them and by the education they receive. He also points to how these theoretical considerations apply to real-life issues, ranging from pension reform and Brexit to biodiversity and the climate crisis. He ends by outlining how intergenerational considerations may translate into institutional design.
Anyone grappling with the dilemmas of our obligations to the future, from students and scholars to policy makers and active citizens, will find this an invaluable theoretical and practical guide to this moral and political minefield
Institutions for Future Generations (OUP, 2016)
In times of climate change and public debt, a concern for intergenerational justice should lead u... more In times of climate change and public debt, a concern for intergenerational justice should lead us to have a closer look at theories of intergenerational justice. It should also press us to come up with institutional design proposals to change the decision-making world that surrounds us. This book focuses on institutional proposals aimed at taking the interests of future generations more seriously. It does so from the perspective of applied political philosophy, being explicit about the underlying normative choices and open to the latest developments in the social sciences. It provides citizens, activists, firms, charities, public authorities, policy-analysts, students, and academics with the body of knowledge necessary to understand what out institutional options are and what they entail if we are concerned about today’s excessive short-termism. After two introductory chapters, four general chapters provide analytical tools needed to look at any type of future-sensitive institutional proposal. This part includes chapters on theories of intergenerational justice, on approaches to measuring intergenerational transfers, on whether claiming to represent future generations or invoking violations of generational sovereignty can make sense. The rest of the book includes eighteen chapters, each of them focusing on a specific proposal. Eight proposals are about future-focused institutions, i.e. bodies for which rendering policy more future-oriented is the main or exclusive purpose. The other ten chapters consider various ways in which institutions that are not specialized in future-oriented policy can nevertheless become more future-sensitive.
Intergenerational justice (OUP, 2009)
Is it fair to leave the next generation a public debt? Is it defensible to impose legal rules on ... more Is it fair to leave the next generation a public debt? Is it defensible to impose legal rules on them through constitutional constraints? From combating climate change to ensuring proper funding for future pensions, concerns about ethics between generations are everywhere. In this book sixteen philosophers explore intergenerational justice. Part One examines the ways in which various theories of justice look at the matter. These include libertarian, Rawlsian, sufficientarian, contractarian, communitarian, Marxian, and reciprocity-based approaches. In Part Two, the chapters look more specifically at issues relevant to each of these theories, such as motivation to act fairly towards future generations, the population dimension, the formation of preferences through education and how they impact on our intergenerational obligations, and whether it is fair to rely on constitutional devices.
This book brings together fifty of today’s finest thinkers. They were asked to let their imaginat... more This book brings together fifty of today’s finest thinkers. They were asked to let their imaginations run free to advance new ideas on a wide range of social and political issues. They did so as friends, on the occasion of Philippe Van Parijs’s sixtieth birthday. Rather than restricting themselves to comments on his numerous writings, the authors engage with the topics on which he has focused his attention over the years, especially with the various dimensions of justice, its scope, and its demands. They discuss issues ranging from the fair distribution of marriage opportunities to the limits of argumentation in a democracy, the deep roots of inequality, the challenges to basic income and the requirements of linguistic justice. They provide ample food for thought for both academic and general readers.
Penser la justice entre les générations. De l'affaire Perruche à la réforme des retraites (Aubier/Flammarion, 2004)
Est-il moralement acceptable de transmettre aux générations futures des déchets nucléaires ou une... more Est-il moralement acceptable de transmettre aux générations futures des déchets nucléaires ou une biodiversité réduite à une peau de chagrin ? Les personnes futures sauraient-elles être titulaires de droits alors qu’elles n’existent pas ? Est-il juste de revoir à la baisse le montant des retraites pour lesquelles des pensionnés ont cotisé toute leur vie ou de transférer aux générations à venir une dette publique considérable ? Chacune de ces questions a trait à différents domaines de notre existence. Pourtant, un fil rouge les relie : celui de la justice entre les générations. Brûlantes d’actualité, ces interrogations se voient bien souvent offrir pour seule réponse le dénuement relatif de nos théories. Ainsi, des concepts comme ceux de «droit acquis» en matière de pensions ou de «développement durable» ne sauraient faire office d’arguments s’ils ne s’appuient pas sur un solide arrière-fond théorique issu de la philosophie morale et politique. Car l’économie publique ou la biologie des populations ne peuvent suffire à aiguiller les citoyens et leurs représentants sur les choix qui leur incombent en matière intergénérationnelle. La philosophie a aussi son rôle à jouer, à la condition qu’elle ait la modestie d’être à l’écoute d’autres disciplines, l’exigence d’articuler clairement ses présupposés, et le courage de se frotter à la pratique
Fourteen philosophers, economists and legal scholars address the question 'Can intellectual prope... more Fourteen philosophers, economists and legal scholars address the question 'Can intellectual property rights be fair?' What differentiates intellectual from real property? Should libertarians or Rawlsians defend IP rights? What's wrong with free-riding? How can incentives be taken into account by theories of justice?
Intergenerational Justice. Probing the assumptions, exploring the implications (Unpublished, 2000)
Papers in English by Axel Gosseries
What is Enough? Sufficiency, Justice and Health, 2016
In this chapter, the implications of intergenerational sufficientarianism for health-related issu... more In this chapter, the implications of intergenerational sufficientarianism for health-related issues are discussed. First, the chapter presents intergenerational sufficientarianism and specifies three of its key features: moderate noncleronomicity, a qualified authorization to save and dissave, and two characteristics of its metrics. It also discusses two specific defenses of sufficientarianism in the intergenerational realm. Second, the chapter applies the sufficientarian framework with an isolationist approach to three health-related issues: patent length, eradication versus control, and antibiotic resistance. Finally, it discusses whether isolationism is more defensible in the case of intergenerational sufficientarianism than it could possibly be for other theories of justice.
Designing Institutions for Future Generations. An Introduction
Institutions for Future Generations, 2016
This chapter presents the book’s goals and structure as well as key notions that should be kept i... more This chapter presents the book’s goals and structure as well as key notions that should be kept in mind while going through the book’s seventeen proposals. Short-termism and the diversity of its types are introduced. Proposals of specialized, future-focused institutions are distinguished from those aimed at rendering non-specialist institutions more future-beneficial. Then endogenous strategies are distinguished from exogenous ones aimed at aligning the actions of institutional actors with the interests of future generations. The various types of mandate of such institutions are also explored. Moreover, three types of determinants of short-termism are separated out: epistemic, motivational and institutional ones. Finally, we consider the extent to which various types of institutional proposals are able to respond to inter- and intra-generational legitimacy concerns.
Generational Sovereignty
Institutions for Future Generations, 2016
This chapter aims at linking the seventeen proposals defended in the book with the notion of gene... more This chapter aims at linking the seventeen proposals defended in the book with the notion of generational sovereignty. Can they be considered to promote or to jeopardize generational sovereignty? We begin with a definition of three notions of generational sovereignty. We then explore whether generational sovereignty, understood in any of these three senses, can actually be restricted. Following that, we put forward and defend a twofold claim: most—if not all—proposals included in this book are likely to contribute to a fairer distribution of effective (political) generational sovereignty while only restricting to a limited extent the jurisdictional sovereignty of current and coming generations. Finally, we explore whether restrictions to generational sovereignty could be justified, how sovereignty issues connect with distributive justice and solidarity concerns, as well as how they connect with issues of short-termism.
Generations and Global Justice (Polity Press, 2016)
Global Political Theory, David Held and Pietro Maffettone (eds.), 2016
This paper argues that anti-age-discrimination law can be used in environmental litigation to com... more This paper argues that anti-age-discrimination law can be used in environmental litigation to combat environmental degradation, including climate inaction. This claim is premised on the possibility of a cohortal reading of anti-age-discrimination law, allowing to challenge discriminatory environmental degradation between generations. Such a cohortal reading received implicit legal support e.g. in the 2012 Commission v. Hungary ECJ case. We specify the personal and material scope conditions under which this strategy could be legally successful
Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, 43(1): 59-80
This paper provides an account of what makes age discrimination special, going through a set of p... more This paper provides an account of what makes age discrimination special, going through a set of possible justifications. In the end, it turns out that a full understanding of the specialness of age-based differential treatment requires that we consider together the “reliable proxy”, the “complete-life neutrality”, the “sequence efficiency” and the “affirmative egalitarian” accounts. Depending on the specific age criteria, all four accounts may apply or only some of them. This is the first key message of this paper. The second message of the paper has to do with the age group/birth cohort distinction. All measures that have a differential impact on different cohorts also tend to have a differential impact on various age groups during the transition. The paper points at the practical implications of anti-age-discrimination law for differential treatment between birth cohorts. The whole argument is confronted all along with ECJ cases