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…
Sara Bernstein (Duke): Possible Causation
Other
Causation is thought to be an on or off matter: either an event is a cause of another event, or it isn’t. I challenge this assumption with two sorts of examples, and give a framework for understanding them. My new framework supports two major lessons about the metaphysics of causation: first, that…
Alma Barner (ANU): Perspectival Imaginings
Other
Visual imagination is perspectival. For example, in visualizing a cup on a table, I imagine the cup and the table from a particular visual perspective. This talk focuses on the question whether perspectivity is relevant for the contents of sensory imaginings, and if so, how we can account for it in…
Justin Bruner (ANU): A Taste for Punishment: Preference Evolution and Cooperation
Other
Even before the advent of modern game theory, reciprocity and reputational effects have been invoked to help explain the sustained existence of cooperation. Hobbes argued that the Foole, who thinks it rational to renege on an agreement if one’s partner has already done her part,…