Is My Generation Better Off Than Yours?

Western society has been centred on perpetual progress for at least the last 150 years. Every generation is, and ought to be, better off than their parents, has been the basic notion. The picture seems to have radically changed when we hear media headlines such as: ‘Millennials are the unluckiest generation in history’, or Gen Z: 'a sacrificed generation’. We often refer to ‘lost generations’, be it to challenge climate inaction, to oppose a war or to object to the evolution of the welfare state. Is the idea of ‘lost generations’ used differently in these various contexts? Are generational differences of any significance? Or do they mainly aim at masking more worrying class or gender inequalities? Axel Gosseries will provide some background on generational thinking in a short lecture, followed by an interview in which Lisa Herzog discusses these key questions with him.

In collaboration with Center for Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Axel Gosseries is an FNRS Research Professor at the University of Louvain (Belgium) where he heads the Chair of Economic and Social Ethics and the PPE Program. His work focuses on theories of justice and especially on issues of intergenerational and climate justice. He has published extensively in philosophy, law and economics. His latest book What is Intergenerational Justice? is forthcoming with Polity Press (Cambridge).

Lisa Herzog works at the intersection of political philosophy and economic thought. Since 2019, she has been Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Groningen. She currently is the Director of the Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Herzog has published on the philosophical dimensions of markets (both historical and systemic), liberalism and social justice, ethics in organisations and the future of work. The current focus of her work is on workplace democracy, professional ethics, and the role of knowledge in democracies.