Prospection as a Sustainability Virtue: Imagining Futures for Intergenerational Ethics

This paper explores the relevance of intergenerational ethics in the context of climate change and argues that virtue ethics provides a suitable framework for addressing these ethical concerns. We suggest the inclusion of a new virtue, called prospection, which involves cultivating the ability to think and care deeply about the future, navigate its inherent uncertainties constructively, and ensure the availability of sustainable options for future generations. We suggest that thinking and imagining sustainable futures trigger good dispositions towards future humans, non-humans and nature and that ought to be part of the definition of a good life. We posit that fostering this disposition can inspire and motivate present actions that effectively mitigate climate change. Virtue ethics implies an element of timelessness in morality because the future tends to be there by default; with prospection, the future will be there by design, reinforcing its importance in intergenerational ethics.