Members of a political society typically regard themselves as participating in intergenerational relationships of obligation and entitlement. They value the inheritance they received from past generations, regard themselves as indebted to their forebears, and accept an obligation to pass on their heritage to their descendants. Liberalism, with its emphasis, on rights, contracts, and welfare of existing people, does not provide an adequate basis for intergenerational obligations. Communitarianism, by stressing communal values of the embedded self, is in a better position to explain why obligations in respect to the past as well as the future should play a central role in conceptions of justice. This chapter critically examines communitarian approaches to intergenerational obligations, and argues for an account of the self in which lifetime-transcending interests play an important role. It presents a theory of intergenerational obligations which makes use of communitarian insights but is also compatible with basic assumptions of liberalism.
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