Abstract
Those inviting contributions to this volume have emphasized that the problem of contingent Mure persons (CFPs) poses theoretical and normative challenges to both philosophers and theologians. I understand the central question in this discussion to be whether one can reasonably speak of harm or benefit to persons whose existence is dependent upon certain types of action, such as the timing of conception. Apparently, such persons cannot be said to be harmed or benefited by any choice or action on which their existence depends because any other choice and action would mean that some other human being would come into existence. The persons actually bom as a result of the choice and action are neither “better off” nor “worse off than” they would have been otherwise, for to say that contingent persons would be better or worse off would seem to require comparing their existence with some state prior to their existence. But comparison with a non-existent state seems impossible. And if it is unreasonable to speak of harm or benefit to future persons whose existence is contingent on our choices, then moral constraints on those choices would seem to evaporate [9], pp. 3-7).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Byrne, P.H.: 1981, “On Taking Responsibility for the Indederminate Future,” in S. Skousgaard (ed.), Phenomenology and the Understanding of Human Destiny, Landham, MD., The University Press of America, pp. 229–237.
Byrne, P.H.: 1982, “The Thomist Sources of Lonergan’s Dynamic World View,” The Thomist, 46, pp. 108–145.
Crowe, F.E.: 1989, “An Exploration of Lonergan’s New Notion of Value,” in F.E. Crowe, Appropriating the Lonergan Idea (ed.) M. Vertin, Washington, DC, The Catholic University of America Press, pp. 51–70.
Crowe, F.E.: 1994, “The Genus ‘Lonergan and’ … and Feminism, in C.S.W. Crysdale (ed.), Lonergan and Feminism, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp. 13–32.
Crowe, F. E.: 1989, “The Life of the Unborn: Notions from Bernard Lonergan,” in F. E. Crowe, Appropriating the Lonergan Idea (ed.) M. Vertin, Washington, DC, The Catholic University of America Press, pp. 360–369.
Crysdale, C: 1995: “Revisioning Natural Law: From a Classicist Paradigm to Emergent Probability,” Theological Studies 56/3, pp. 464–484.
Duprè, L.: 1993, Passage to Modernity: An Essay in the Hermeneutics of Nature and Culture, Yale University Press, New Haven.
George, W. P.: 1992, “Regarding Future Neighbours: Thomas Aquinas and Concern for Posterity,” The Heythrop Journal 33, pp. 283–306.
Heller, J. C: 1996, “The Challenge of Contingent Future Persons,” paper delivered at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics, Albuquerque, NM., Jan. 5-7.
Heyd, D.: 1992, Genethics: Moral Issues in the Creation of People, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Lonergan, B. J. F.: 1967, “Cognitional Structure,” in F.E. Crowe (ed.), Collection: Papers by Bernard Lonergan, Herder and Herder, New York, pp. 221–239.
Lonergan, B. J. F.: 1970, Insight: A Study in Human Understanding, 3rd. ed., Philosophical Library, New York.
Lonergan, B. J. F.: 1972, Method in Theology, 1973, 2d ed., Herder and Herder, New York.
Lonergan, B. J. F.: 1985, “Mission and the Spirit,” in F.E. Crowe (ed.), A Third Collection: Papers by Bernard J. F. Lonergan, Paulist Press, New York, pp. 221–239.
Lonergan, B. J. F.: 1967, “The Natural Desire to See God,” in F.E. Crowe (ed.), Collection Papers by Bernard Lonergan, Herder and Herder, New York, pp. 84–95.
Melchin, K. R.: 1987, History, Ethics and Emergent Probability: Ethics, Society and History in the Work of Bernard Lonergan, University Press of America, Lanham, MD.
Roy, J. D.: 1981, “Bioethics as Anamnesis: What Lonergan has Understood and Others Have Overlooked,” in ML. Lamb (ed.), Creativity and Method: Essays in Honor of Bernard Lonergan, S.J Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, pp. 325–338.
Schute, M.: 1994, “Emergent Probability and the Ecomfeminist Critique of Hierarchy,” in C.S.W. Crysdale (ed.), Lonergan and Feminism, University of Toronto Press, pp. 146–174.
Stebbins, J. M.: 1995, The Divine Initiative: Grace, World-Order and Human Freedom in the Early Writings of Bernard Lonergan, University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Weis., E.B.: 1989, In Fairness to Future Generations: International Law, Common Patrimony, and Intergenerational Justice, Transnational Publishers, Inc., Dobbs Ferry, NY.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
George, W.P. (1997). Anticipating Posterity: A Lonerganian Approach to the Problem of Contingent Future Persons. In: Fotion, N., Heller, J.C. (eds) Contingent Future Persons. Theology and Medicine, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5566-3_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5566-3_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6345-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5566-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive