Finding Space in a Nonspatial World, Professor David Chalmers, Centre for Consciousness, ANU
Other
We experience a world of three-dimensional space in one-dimensional time. How can we locate this experienced world in the different picture of space and time given by physics? Relativity yields a four-dimensional spacetime in which space is not absolute, and physicists entertain…
Neil Sinhababu (NUS): Desire's Explanations
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I defend a Humean theory of motivation on which desire motivates all action and drives all practical reasoning. First I lay out the significance for this view for metaethics, distinguishing it from a similar view defended by Michael Smith. Then I lay out four properties of desire. It motivates…
Steven Ratner (UMich) on The Thin Justice of International Law (Co-Hosted with RegNet)
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International law and moral philosophy have addressed questions of global justice, but with very little communication between disciplines. The results are moral prescriptions that ignore legal institutions and legal theorising that hides inherent ethical choices. To help bridge this gap…
Sara Bernstein (Duke): Omissions as Possibilities
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Abstract: Last week I watered my plant, causing it to look green and healthy. But this week I failed to water it, causing it to look brown and wilted. My watering the plant was a “positive” event, but what, exactly, was my omission to water it? Causal claims involving omissions—roughly, events that…
Paul Bartha (UBC): Satan, Saint Peter and Saint Petersburg
Other
Abstract: Dominance reasoning is a paradigm of rationality. Intransitive preferences are a paradigm of irrationality. Yet there are cases where an infinite sequence of decisions guided by dominance reasoning leads to a situation closely analogous to having intransitive preferences…