Moral Duties to Past-Selves

Vincent Grandjean (University of Zürich), Agnès Baehni (Université de Genève)

This lecture explores the implications of two widely accepted beliefs: (i) we have moral duties towards persons who are no longer present, and (ii) we have moral duties towards ourselves. Specifically, our inquiry centers on moral duties towards our past-selves. We begin by addressing various objections challenging the viability of such duties and subsequently present two arguments supporting their plausibility. These arguments draw from hypothetical time-travel scenarios and the arbitrary exclusion of past-selves from the moral framework. In conclusion, we argue that recognizing moral duties to our past-selves is paradoxically crucial for combating moral egocentrism in its temporal dimension.