Högre seminarium i praktisk filosofi: Lukas Meyer (University of Graz)

The Ethics of Expectations in Transitions to Climate Neutrality

Seminarium

Datum:

tisdag 21 oktober 2025

Tid:

13.15 – 15.00

Plats:

D700

Abtract

In his talk, Lukas Meyer outlines the evolving contours of EXPECT — aproject in development that aims to construct a normative framework for understanding the ethics of expectations in climate transitions. Expectations are not mere predictions; they are socially embedded, normatively charged structures through which individuals and institutions relate to the future.

Shaped by interpersonal commitments, social practices, and public institutions, expectations inform life plans, agency, and trust. When climate disruption unsettles these anticipatory claims, the resulting loss can be existential. 
EXPECT integrates three core dimensions: epistemic responsibility (what individuals must know or inquire into), epistemic justification (whether expectations are normatively legitimate), and temporal revisability (when expectations must be reconsidered). It examines how expectations acquire legitimacy through responsibility-based, political, and justice-oriented frameworks — and how epistemic failures, from testimonial injustice to role-based deficiency, compromise their moral standing.

 
The project also addresses adjustment responsibility and burden assessment: what can reasonably be asked of individuals when expectations must be revised, and how should the costs of such revision be ethically evaluated? It argues that fairness depends both on the epistemic conditions under which expectations were formed, and on the nature and distribution of the burdens imposed by change.

Expectations may warrant protection, adjustment, or relinquishment — but only through principled assessment. 
EXPECT offers a dual lens: clarifying individual responsibility for forming and revising expectations, and institutional obligations to respond to them — even when those expectations fall short of full legitimacy. It reframes justice as a matter not only of distribution, but of recognition, revision, and ethical responsiveness in times of transition.