Ethics for a Broken World

Imagine living in the future in a world already damaged by humankind, a world where resources are insufficient to meet everyone's basic needs and where a chaotic climate makes life precarious. Then imagine looking back into the past, back to our own time and assessing the ethics of the early twenty-first century. "Ethics for a Broken World" imagines how the future might judge us and how living in a time of global environmental degradation might utterly reshape the politics and ethics of the future. This book is presented as a series of history of philosophy lectures given in the future, studying the classic texts from a past age of affluence, our own time. The central ethical questions of our time are shown to look very different from the perspective of a ruined world. The aim of "Ethics for a Broken" World is to look at our present with the benefit of hindsight - to reimagine contemporary philosophy in an historical context - and to highlight the contingency of our own moral and political ideals.

"A bold, creative, provocative, ingenious and important book that will be of tremendous interest to students and teachers of ethical, political and environmental philosophy." - John Seery, Pomona College, California "An excellent and hugely innovative introduction to political philosophy. By asking readers to imagine what our political philosophy might look like to members of a broken future, the book challenges many assumptions about resources and future generations that are implicit yet central to much contemporary political philosophy. The book offers a truly unique perspective, and will be a great benefit to students and teachers.A" - Jonathan Quong, University of Manchester

Tim Mulgan is Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. His books include Understanding Utilitarianism (Acumen, 2008).

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