Many of the most serious threats to humanity, like anthropogenic climate change, are caused by the amalgamation of a range of different actions, practices and factors (Scheffler, 2001, p. 39). Such essentially aggregative harms present a puzzle for deontological moral analysis because in these cases it is not clear to what degree agents can be held responsible for the harm caused. Worse still it is not clear whether any agents can be identified as acting wrongly. The aim of this paper is to consider how a Contractualist approach can assign duties with regards to such ‘essentially aggregative harms’.
This question is relevant to the issue of how to deal with global problems like irreversible climate change. The analysis here suggests that in response to these problems agents have collectivization duties that require they act responsively to establish reliable institutional solutions to these problems. Where the problems are global this will require the establishment of global institutions. Thus the contractualist solution to essentially aggregative harm proposed here could be used to support an argument for cosmopolitanism.
The paper begins by explaining why cases of essentially aggregative harm present a problem for a deontological approach. Thus I agree with Scheffler that such a morality needs to be adjusted to deal with these cases. The paper uses Contractualism as a framework for assessing candidate principles. Various duties agents could have with regards to essentially aggregative harm are investigated and some preliminary conclusions drawn.
