Anger in a Broken World: Emotions and intergenerational justice

Abstract

The constructive use of anger has been argued against for several reasons, including not being able to change the situation that causes anger or only being able to cause a short term effect. I argue against these objections and I will propose that there is a way to use anger in a constructive way, namely to personificate future generations that will face the harms of climate change. A vivid and angry personification has the power to override the moral flaw of abstraction and to cause an affect, which together leads to engaging more people in the debate of intergenerational justice. Tim Mulgan’s Ethics for a broken world is an example of how we can effectively personificate future generations and shows that there is a place for this approach alongside theoretical philosophy.