Graduation Year
2015
Date of Submission
12-2014
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Philosophy and Public Affairs
Reader 1
Adrienne Martin
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2014 Jared S. R. Thomas
Abstract
Most recent attempts at solving the Non-Identity Problem have focused on providing a deontological solution to the problem, often by giving special attention to rights. In this paper, I argue for a solution that focuses on highlighting the morally permissible second-personal reasons and claims that nonidentity victims may have. I use a natural marriage between a Kantian conceptualization of what it means to be free and equal—being one’s own master—and Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach to identify the rights that all individuals, current and future are assigned. I claim that these rights, or capabilities, are what all are entitled to master for themselves in the Kantian sense. I conclude with a solution that produces intuitively correct results and dissolves the nonidentity problem altogether.
Recommended Citation
Thomas, Jared S. R., "A Capabilities Approach to the Non-Identity Problem" (2015). CMC Senior Theses. 1027.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1027
