Skip to main content

School of Philosophy

  • Home
  • People
  • Events
    • Event series
    • Conferences
      • Past conferences
    • Past events
  • News
    • Audio/Video Recordings
  • Research
  • Study with us
    • Prizes and scholarships
  • Visit us
  • Contact us

Centres & Projects

  • Centre for Consciousness
  • Centre for Moral, Social and Political Theory
  • Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences
  • Humanising Machine Intelligence

Related Sites

  • Research School of Social Sciences
  • ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Centre for Consciousness

Related Sites

Centre for Moral, Social and Political Theory

Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences

School of Philosophy

Administrator

Breadcrumb

HomeUpcoming EventsPeter Graham (University of Massachusetts): Subjectivism, Actualism, and Beneficial Sacrifice
Peter Graham (University of Massachusetts): Subjectivism, Actualism, and Beneficial Sacrifice

Presently there are two very lively debates ongoing in normative ethics: the Actualism/Possibilism debate and the Subjectivism/Objectivism debate. In this talk I argue that the correct moral theory is an Objectivist Possibilist one. First, I argue that Subjectivism entails Actualism; in particular, I argue that the only plausible way of constructing a version of Possibilist Subjectivism yields results no Subjectivist could find plausible. And then, second, I argue that Actualism is false; in particular, I argue that Actualism yields implausible results in certain cases involving permissible beneficial sacrifice—cases in which it is permissible to cause harm to some in order to prevent others from suffering harm.

Date & time

  • Mon 11 Jul 2016, 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

Location

Coombs Seminar Room A

Event Series

MSPT seminars