What We Owe The Future

Should our priorities change when we consider all the lives yet to come?

The challenges we face are enormous. But we can still secure a positive future for our planet, and for everyone on it.In What We Owe The Future, philosopher William MacAskill persuasively argues for longtermism, the idea that positively influencing the distant future is a moral priority of our time. It isn't enough to mitigate climate change or avert the next pandemic. We can ensure that civilization would rebound if it collapsed; cultivate value pluralism; and prepare for a planet where the most sophisticated beings are digital and not human.'Unapologetically optimistic and bracingly realistic, this is the most inspiring book on 'ethical living' I've ever read.' Oliver Burkeman, Guardian'A monumental event.' Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind'A book of great daring, clarity, insight and imagination. To be simultaneously so realistic and so optimistic, and always so damn readable... well that is a miracle for which he should be greatly applauded.' Stephen Fry

Auteur

William MacAskill is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University. His academic work spans a breadth of fields within normative philosophy, including practical ethics, population ethics, social choice theory and decision theory. At age 28, he became the youngest tenured professor of philosophy in the world. MacAskill is the cofounder of Giving What We Can, 80,000 Hours, the Centre for Effective Altruism and the Oxford University-based Global Priorities Institute. He's recognised as a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper and a Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur.

Résumé

'I was captivated by MacAskill's rolling out of the possibilities of a longtermist approach to the now. It is vital to do as he does, to take ethics out of the safety of lecture-hall thought experiments, paradoxes and what-ifs and into the turbulent real world, where the dynamic winds of history blow and where is massing on the horizon that monstrous, swelling tsunami that we call the future. This is a book of great daring, clarity, insight and imagination. To be simultaneously so realistic and so optimistic, and always so damn readable... well that is a miracle for which he should be greatly applauded.' -Stephen Fry