Doxastic Wronging, Disrespectful Belief and The Moral Over-Demandingness Objection - Stephanie Sheintul
Seminar
Some scholars working on the ethics of belief argue that we can wrong each other in virtue of what we believe. This thesis is known as doxastic wronging. Proponents of doxastic wronging have different views about when our beliefs wrong. A prominent view is that our beliefs wrong when they…
Engineering Ecocide is Morally Wrong - Christopher Lean
Seminar
Recently philosophers have argued that genetically engineering predators to become herbivores is a morally viable option (Bramble 2020; Pearce 2015; McMahan 2015;). Others have argued that high fecundity high mortality life strategies should be engineered into low fecundity low mortality breeding…
A Defense of Statistical and Character Evidence in the Law - Nevin Climenhaga
Seminar
According to legal probabilism, a legal standard of proof (such as “preponderance of evidence” or “beyond a reasonable doubt”) is met just in case the probability of guilt or liability given the evidence is above some threshold. One common objection to legal probabilism is that it wrongly treats “…
The Choice Argument for Proportional Representation - Adam Lovett
Seminar
What electoral system should a democracy choose? I argue for proportional representation (PR). My main empirical premise is Duverger’s law: under PR there are more viable candidates in district-level elections than there are under single-member plurality (SMP) systems. This matters normatively…
The Privilege of Self-Control
Seminar
People living in poverty are subject to a range of stigmatising social myths linking their poverty to a blameworthy lack of individual self-control and self-management skills that is taken to justify denying them access to central elements of a good human life. Indeed, a recent survey indicated…
Rethinking Consciousness - Albert Newen
Seminar
The talk aims to address two central questions regarding consciousness - Why did phenomenal consciousness evolve, and when are we justified to attribute it to humans and nonhuman animals? Albert will start by characterising the core functional role of consciousness by outlining a two-…
Signalling, Sanctioning and Sensitising: How to Uphold Norms with Blame - Adam Piovarchy
Seminar
This paper provides a unified account of the nature of blame by taking a broader look at the connection between individual blaming reactions and the moral practices of communities. The methodological proposal is that to understand what blame is, we need to understand what it does, but to understand…