The Ethics of Human Extinction Reading Group

Table of Contents:

1. Overview

2. Description

3. Future Meetings

4. Past Meetings

1. Overview:

This is an interdisciplinary reading group dedicated to exploring the ethical and evaluative implications of human extinction. It will be held on Zoom every 2 weeks or so, and last one hour. Meetings will begin with a presentation (10 to 30 minutes long), after which we will open up the meeting for a Q&A with the speaker. If you are interested in being added to the reading group's email list, contact Dr. Émile P. Torres at philosophytorres@gmail.com.

2. Description:

The aim of this reading group is to examine the topic of human extinction from a wide variety of different perspectives. This includes three broad classes of views within the field of human extinction ethics (Existential Ethics), namely, further-loss views, such as longtermism and totalist utilitarianism, which see the badness or wrongness of human extinction as arising in part from the state of Being Extinct. Equivalence views, such as contractualism and other person-affecting theories, which say that the badness or wrongness of human extinction comes down entirely to the details of Going Extinct. And pro-extinctionist views, which argue that the state of Being Extinct would in some way be better than the alternative of Being Extant, or continuing to exist.

Some have argued that the probability of human extinction this century, or in the coming centuries, is higher than it has ever been in human history. If correct, this makes the topic of great urgency. Yet, as I argue in my book Human Extinction, Existential Ethics has received very little attention from philosophers within the Western tradition. Most discussion of our extinction these days occurs within the longtermist community, but, as alluded to above, this is just one of many different views that one can take on the topic—it is not even the only type of further-loss view! The goal of this reading group is to encourage more academics to rigorously examine the topic, and to help establish Existential Ethics as a cohesive field of intellectual inquiry.

Everyone is welcome to attend our meetings and debate these topics with other academics. For an introduction to Existential Ethics, see this article of mine, which offers a theoretical framework for thinking about the topic.

The Ethics of Human Extinction Reading Group also has a YouTube channel, which includes videos of our meetings (although, unfortunately, I did not record the first two meetings).

3. Future Meetings:

November 1, 2pm Eastern time: Dr. Kritika Maheshwari, Assistant Professor in Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at TU Delft, The Netherlands. [THIS HAS BEEN POSTPONED]

Topics: TBA.

Dr. Elizabeth Finneron-Burns, TBD.

4. Past Meetings:

October 14, 2pm Eastern time: Dr. Ian Stoner, Instructor in the Department of Philosophy at Saint Paul College, Minnesota.

Topics: Dr. Stoner will discuss the background and motivation of a thought experiment he introduced in a recent paper. That thought experiment aims to ground a non-misanthropic argument, motivated by environmental values, in favor of human extinction. "Against the Supposed Obligation to Prolong the Human Species," Res Philosophica.

September 20, 11am Eastern time: Dr. Matti Häyry, Professor of Philosophy at Aalto University School of Business.

Topics: Dr. Häyry will discuss his current views on the ethics of human extinction. Recommended background readings include: "Confessions of an Antinatalist Philosopher," Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, "Exit Duty Generator," Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, and "A rational cure for prereproductive stress syndrome," Journal of Medical Ethics.

September 2, 2pm Eastern time: Dr. Uri Eran, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Topics: Questions about humanity's extinction are gaining prominence in contemporary philosophy, but work on the topic is usually done within a consequentialist framework, and rarely engages with the history of philosophy. My paper, titled "Ought We Save Ourselves? Kantian Reasons to Ensure Humanity's Survival," takes some steps toward fixing this lacuna by probing into Kantian moral reasons for ensuring humanity's survival, and into skepticism about such reasons which may also be thought to have its roots in Kant. I argue that despite its dubious metaphysical assumptions, a Kantian approach that grounds our reason to save humanity in nature's final end is the most promising candidate for justifying such action at the cost of decreased biodiversity.

August 26, 2pm Eastern time: Dr. Audra Mitchell, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Political Ecology at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Topics: In this session, we'll discuss oppressive futurisms (e.g., future discourses rooted in colonial, racist, ableist, eugenicist, heteronormative and other logics), and their relationship to discourses of "human extinction" and/or "existential risk." Building on research on the racist, colonial and capitalist roots of many futurist discourses (including those in the TESCREAL bundle), we can also discuss the role of eugenics, ableism, heteronormativity and anthropocentrism in shaping imagined futures – but also of the promise of widespread global movements against these forms of oppression as bases for more just and plural futures.

August 16, 2pm Eastern time: Dr. Todd May, Niesen Professor of the Humanities at Warren Wilson College and one of the original contributors to "The Stone," a New York Times philosophy blog.

Topics: Dr. May will discuss his recent book (published on August 6), titled Should We Go Extinct?: A Philosophical Dilemma for Our Unbearable Times, as well as his New York Times article "Would Human Extinction Be a Tragedy?"

August 5, 2pm Eastern time: Federica Dalla Costa, master's student at Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy.

Topics: Federica will discuss a fascinating work-in-progress about how "Neo-Malthusianism and even extinctionism have penetrated mainstream environmentalism," though "many ecocritics have problematized this view, highlighting its potential ecofascist
implications." This will be an opportunity for participants to explore these topics and provide critical feedback on Federica's very interesting project!

July 26, 2pm Eastern time: Les U. Knight, a Volunteer in the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT).

Topics: Les will discuss ethical imperatives for ceasing the co-creation of new humans as well as the perpetuation of Homo sapiens. He will present a brief history of human overpopulation awareness from 1970 to the present, including changes in attitudes about our overshoot. The influence of natalism, pronatalism, and antinatalism in today’s society will also be presented for discussion. An introductory flier, These EXIT Times, includes basics of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement VHEMT.

July 12, 2pm Eastern time: Dr. Richard Pettigrew, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol.

Topics: "Should Longtermists Recommend Hastening Extinction Rather Than Delaying It?" The Monist. Dr. Pettigrew will also touch upon some of the responses to this article, such as this article by Dr. Andreas Mogensen.

June 7, 2pm Eastern time: Dr. David Thorstad, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, Senior Research Affiliate at the Global Priorities Institute (Oxford), and Research Affiliate at the MINT Lab (Australian National University).

Topics: "Existential Risk Pessimism and the Time of Perils," Global Priorities Institute Working Paper. You can find another version of the paper on the Effective Altruism Forum here.

May 3, 2pm Eastern time: Dr. Roger Crisp, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Uehiro Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, St Anne's College, University of Oxford.

Topics: "Would Extinction Be So Bad?" New Statesman, and

"Pessimism About the Future," Midwest Studies in Philosophy.

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The Ethics of Human Extinction Reading Group

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