Aidan Lyon (Maryland/MCMP/Melbourne): Collective Wisdom
Other
Recently there as been a surge of interest by researchers in the so-called wisdom of crowds (WoC) effect. Roughly speaking, the WoC effect occurs when a group of people, as a collective, perform some task much better than the individuals in the group. As exciting as examples of the WoC effect are…
Ryan Cox (ANU): ‘Because’ and ‘Why’ in Context
Other
How does rational explanation—the explanation of actions and attitudes in terms of an agent’s reasons—relate to other kinds of explanation? Is it just like other kinds of explanation? Is it fundamentally unlike other kinds of explanation? One way to make progress on these questions is by getting…
MSPT Seminar: Benjamin Kiesewetter (ANU/HU Berlin): You ought to Φ only if you may believe that you ought to Φ
Other
Abstract: In this paper I present an argument for the claim that you ought to do something only if you may believe that you ought to do it. More exactly, I defend the following principle about normative reasons: An agent A has decisive reason to Φ only if she has sufficient reason to believe that…
Richard Menary (Macquarie): Cognition and Social Niche Construction
Other
I’ll start by looking at the main differences between Sterelny and Clark’s accounts of niche construction, highlighting the importance of social niche construction for cognitive development. I’ll then provide an account of the developmental route by which social niches transform the neural…
Shanna Slank (UW Madison): What, if any, is the practical value of political ideals?
Other
In this talk, I take up a question in the context of the “ideal/nonideal theory” debate in political philosophy. The question is this: What, if any, is the practical value of political ideals? I consider and reject two prominent answers. The first is that principles expressing political ideals are…