MENTAL MODEL · M13267

The Nonidentity Problem

CultureHigh supportEthics

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Updated 2026-09-10

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

The nonidentity problem raises two questions: what moral obligations agents have toward future people, those who do not yet exist but may exist one day, and how those obligations, insofar as we have them, are most credibly accounted for. The problem turns on the fact that identity itself can depend on our choices, which breaks the usual framework for assigning harm.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Classify the effect: distinguish policies that change quality of life from those that determine who will exist. - Rebuild harm: when making someone worse off fails, find another standard for the wrong. - Assign generations: ask what is owed to people who do not yet exist.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

The difficulty is that identity depends on our choices. When a policy shapes not only the quality of future lives but which particular people will exist, those affected would not have existed at all without the policy, and if their lives are worth living, the policy cannot be said to have made them worse off. The familiar account of harm as making someone worse off then fails to apply.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Practice this model in one real situation:

Ask whether the choice affects which people will exist. 2. If it does not, evaluate it by ordinary interpersonal harm comparison. 3. If it does, check whether the affected lives are worth living. 4. Switch to an impersonal or plural standard of value to assess the policy.

Check to track your progress (stored locally)

Learning progress0%

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Source support: Explicit

link
plato.stanford.eduhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nonidentity-problem/ZH · Explicit
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