Justice Between Generations: African, Asian, Indigenous and Western Perspectives

For further details and registration please go to: https://www.concordia.ca/cuevents/offices/provost/fourth-space/programming/2021/09/29/justice-between-generations-asian-african-indigenous-western.html

Nature, Time, Responsibility is an intercultural, interuniversity philosophy network that promotes sustained dialogue on the topic of moral, legal and political responsibilities in the face of environmental challenges and the injustices they cause.

Since 2011, Nature, Time, Responsibility has organized four major conferences, bringing together over 30 researchers from around the world, including China, the USA, Japan, Germany, Canada, Finland and Australia to engage in in-depth, cross-cultural, comparative-philosophical dialogue.

This three-day conference welcomes researchers to focus on intergenerational ethics through cross-cultural philosophical dialogue. Organized around the guiding theme of connections among the concepts of nature, time and responsibility and hosted by the Nature, Time, Responsibility Research Group based at Concordia. Presented virtually and open to all.

In the context of this conference, responsibility appears as a connectedness to the past as well as to the future: to affirm responsibility is to respond to what precedes us, but with a view to altering future affairs for the better. What precedes us comprises the nature that sustains us, the presently living, as well as our ancestors who worked on this nature and so prepared our arrival.

The fact that the present generation’s responsiveness to past generations, as well as its responsibilities to distant future people, pass by way of conserving the natural environment may thus not be accidental, but, rather, reveals the nature and time of responsibility itself. 

Times:
September 29, 1 – 6 p.m. EST
September 30, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. EST
October 1, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. EST

Wednesday September 29

1 to 1:15 p.m. Matthias Fritsch and Jing Hu “Territorial Acknowledgement and Welcome”

1:15 to 2:30 p.m.  Marion Hourdequin (Colorado College), “Confucianism and Intergenerational Ethics”

2:30 to 3:45 p.m.  Matthias Fritsch (Concordia University), “Indirect Intergenerational Reciprocity in Indigenous Philosophies and its Relevance to Climate Ethics” 

4 to 5:15 p.m. Krushil Watene (Massey University), “Toward an Indigenous Intergenerational Ethic: Manaakitanga and Kaitiakitanga”

Thursday, September 30

9 to 9:45 a.m. Discussion Panel

9:45 to 11 a.m. James Miller (Duke Kunshan University), “Nature-Time- Responsibility and the Porous Body in Chinese Thought” 

11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  Workineh Kelbessa (Addis Ababa University), “Intergenerational Justice and the Environment in Africa”

2 to 3:15 p.m.  Timothy Connolly (East Stroudsburg University), “Confucian Approaches to Intergenerational Ethics”

3:15 to 4:30 p.m.  Hiroshi Abe (Kyoto University), “Freedom and Onozukara. Intergenerational Responsibility from a Japanese Point of View” 

4:45 to 6 p.m.  Stephen Gardiner (University of Washington), “Representing Future Generations in a Global Constitutional Convention” 

Friday, October 1

9 to 9:45 a.m. Discussion Panel

9:45 to 11 a.m.  Roni Leung and Mario Wenning (University of Macau), “Ghosts and Intergenerational Justice: a Confucian Perspective” 

11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Joseph C. A. Agbakoba (University of Nigeria), “Reasonabilism and the Socio-centric Foundations of Intergenerational Justice in African Thought”

2 to 3:15 p.m. Talk 11 Jing Hu (Concordia University), “Moral Progress and Moral Emotions for the Next Generation”

3:15 to 4:30 p.m. Tim Mulgan (University of Auckland/University of St Andrews), “Philosophy for an Ending World”

4:45 to 6 p.m.  Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò and Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner (Georgetown University), "More Solidarity More Problems: Land-Based Intergenerational Justice"

The Justice Between Generations: Asian, African, Indigenous, and Western Perspectives conference is funded by:

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

• Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, Germany

• Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Montreal

With support from:

• Earth Systems Governance, Workgroup Representations of and Rights for the Environment (ESGRREW)

• Canadian Commission for UNESCO

• Department of Philosophy, Concordia University

• Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture (CISSC), Concordia University
• Social Justice Centre, Concordia University

• Next-Generation Cities Institute, Concordia University