Reasons and Persons (1984) earned Derek Parfit a reputation as one of the greatest moral philosophers of the past century. It is the book in which he gives the fullest account of his views on personal identity: what is it, if anything, that makes the baby, Derek Antony Parfit, born in China to missionary parents in 1942, the same as the Etonian schoolboy Derek Parfit, the author of Reasons and Persons, and the same individual as the Derek Parfit who died in London on 2 January 2017?
It’s also the book that encompasses his arguments about people who will exist but who are yet to be conceived. What should be the nature of our concern for future generations? What are our duties towards them? Is it relevant that these people are not yet born? So long as lives are happy, should we try to create as many lives as possible? Before Parfit, philosophical writing on population ethics was sparse, especially on the topic of our obligations to merely possible people. Parfit fashioned a sub-genre of moral philosophy and triggered a mini-industry of research.
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