Consumption
What are our moral responsibilities as consumers? The morally relevant reasons you have not to buy something may be participatory reasons, which you possess as an actual or potential member of some group, or individual reasons, which are not possessed in that way. Individual reasons are generated through the direct application of concern- and respect-derived norms to your actions as an individual consumer; participatory reasons, from norms of cooperation. Various distinguishable reasons of these two broad types can be derived in different ways from the foundations of morality. The importance of these distinctions is illustrated by applying them to three important kinds of consumption activity: retail purchases, share ownership, and the actions through which we contribute to climate change.