Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T09:32:56.948Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Prenatal Injury and the Nonidentity Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2021

Michael Rabenberg*
Affiliation:
University Center for Human Values, Princeton University. Princeton, NJ, USA

Abstract

I argue that, given certain prominent views of personal identity and prudence, the nonidentity problem, or a very similar problem, can arise postconception. I clarify and defend this claim by considering the implications of these views for prenatal injury.

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Canadian Journal of Philosophy

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Robert. 1979. “Existence, Self-Interest, and the Problem of Evil.” Noûs 13: 5365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, Lynne Rudder. 1999. “What Am I?Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59: 151–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boonin, David. 2014. The Non-Identity Problem and the Ethics of Future People. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flanigan, Jessica. Forthcoming. “The Ethics of Prenatal Injury.” Journal of Moral Philosophy. Advance Article, https://brill.com/view/journals/jmp/aop/article-10.1163-17455243-BJA10059/article-10.1163-17455243-BJA10059.xml.Google Scholar
Hanser, Matthew. 1990. “Harming Future People.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 19: 4770.Google ScholarPubMed
Harman, Elizabeth. 2004. “Can We Harm and Benefit in Creating?Philosophical Perspectives 18: 89109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, Elizabeth. 2009. “Harming as Causing Harm.” In Harming Future Persons, edited by Roberts, Melinda and Dordrecht, David Wasserman., Nether.: Springer.Google Scholar
Harman, Elizabeth. 2011. “Fischer and Lamenting Nonexistence.” Social Theory and Practice 37: 129–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurley, Paul, and Weinberg, Rivka. 2015. “Whose Problem Is Non-Identity?Journal of Moral Philosophy 12: 699730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, Frederik. 1996. “Death and Deprivation; Or, Why Lucretius’ Symmetry Argument Fails.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74: 305–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kavka, Gregory. 1981. “The Paradox of Future Individuals.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 11: 93112.Google Scholar
Liberto, Hallie. 2014. “The Exploitation Solution to the Non-Identity Problem.” Philosophical Studies 167: 7388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahan, Jeff. 2006a. “The Lucretian Argument.” In The Good, the Right, Life and Death: Essays in Honor of Fred Feldman, edited by McDaniel, Kris et al., 213–26. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.Google Scholar
McMahan, Jeff. 2006b. “Paradoxes of Abortion and Prenatal Injury.” Ethics 116: 625–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meier, Lukas. 2019. “What Matters in the Mirror of Time: Why Lucretius’ Symmetry Argument Fails.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 97: 651–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Eric. 1997. “Was I Ever a Fetus?Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57: 95110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Eric. 2019. “Personal Identity.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (fall edition), edited by Zalta, Edward N.. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/identity-personal/.Google Scholar
Parfit, Derek. 1984. Reasons and Persons. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, M.A. 2019. “The Nonidentity Problem.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (summer edition), edited by Zalta, Edward N.. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/entries/nonidentity-problem/.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoemaker, Sydney. 1984. “Personal Identity: A Materialist’s Account.” In Personal Identity, Shoemaker, Sydney and Swinburne, Richard. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Smilansky, Saul. 2013. “Morally, Should We Prefer Never to Have Existed?Australasian Journal of Philosophy 91: 655–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skow, Bradford. 2007. “Are Shapes Intrinsic?Philosophical Studies 133: 111–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Michael. 2004. “What Is It to Wrong Someone? A Puzzle about Justice.” In Reason and Value: Themes from the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz, edited by Jay Wallace, R., Pettit, Philip, Scheffler, Samuel, and Smith, Michael. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Velleman, David. 2020. On Being Me: A Personal Invitation to Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Weinberg, Rivka. 2008. “Identifying and Dissolving the Non-Identity Problem.” Philosophical Studies 137: 318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, James. 1986. “The Non-Identity Problem.” Ethics 96: 804–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar