Elizabeth Finneron-Burns

Professor


DPhil (Oxford), MSc (LSE), BA Hons (Queen's) 
Telephone: 519.661.2111 ext. 82236
E-mail: efinnero@uwo.ca
Office: Social Science Centre 7211

Research Interests

I am interested in our obligations to future generations, including who and how many people we create, and what kind of lives we leave them. 

Current Research Projects

I am currently working on ‘The Ethics of Human Extinction’ project funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant. I am exploring how we ought to think about the ethics of human extinction, in particular: (i) what we mean by ‘humanity’ and ‘human extinction’; (ii) whether there would be anything bad or wrong about causing or allowing humans to become extinct and (iii) whether we have an obligation to our ancestors to preserve the human species.

I am also interested in intergenerational ethics more broadly, especially how we ought to balance what we owe to future people with what we owe to the world’s current poor.

Selected Publications

Scholarly Books (Authored & Co-Authored)

  • 2024. Finneron-Burns, Elizabeth, What We Owe to Future People, Oxford University Press.
  • 2022. Arrhenius, Gustaf, Krister Bykvist, Tim Campbell and Elizabeth Finneron-Burns, eds. Oxford Handbook of Population Ethics, Oxford University Press.

Refereed Journal Articles

  • Forthcoming. ‘Productive Justice in the ‘Post-Work’ Future’ Journal of Applied Philosophy (with Caleb Althorpe).
  • Forthcoming. ‘Humanity: Its Constitution, Value, and Extinction’ The Monist.
  • 2023. ‘Are Savior Siblings a Special Case in Procreative Ethics?’ Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 26(1) (with Caleb Althorpe).
  • 2023. ‘Global Justice, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and Saving for Future People’ Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. Online First.
  • 2023. ‘Luck Egalitarianism and Non-Overlapping Generations’ Ratio 36(3).
  • 2022. ‘Human Extinction and Moral Worthwhileness’ Utilitas 34(1).
  • 2019. Review of Diana Coole’s Should We Control World Population? in Ethics & International Affairs, 33(1).
  • 2018. ‘The Intergenerational Original Position.’ Social Theory & Practice, 43(4).
  • 2017. ‘What’s Wrong with Human Extinction?’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 47(2).
  • 2016. ‘Contractualism and the Non-Identity Problem’. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 19(5).

Book Chapters 

  • 2021. 'State Pension Schemes and the Duties of Retirees' (forthcoming) in Stephen Gardiner (Ed.) Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Justice, Oxford University Press.