Hayden Wilkinson (TPR): Happily Ever After (for our universe but not for consequentialism)
Activity
It's quite likely that we live in an infinite universe. Also, of anything we typically say is morally valuable, it's likely that the universe contains an infinite amount. The standard ΛCDM model, our current 'best guess' theory of cosmology, predicts that our universe will persist forever and…
Tom Dougherty (Cambridge): Affirmative Consent
Activity
One of the most significant recent developments in sexual offence policy has been the proliferation of affirmative consent policies, which prohibit sexual activity with someone who has not acted in a way that clearly expresses her consent. I argue that if this prohibition has a proportionate…
Justin D’Ambrosio (Australian National University): Hallucination and the New Problem of Empty Names
Activity
In this paper, I argue that, on very natural reconstructions, the problem of hallucination and the problem of empty names are structurally identical down to an extremely fine level of granularity, and also overlap significantly in terms of their content. I show that the problems follow from the…
Brian Garrett (Australian National University): Dummett on McTaggart, Space & Time
Activity
Abstract: Michael Dummett’s “A Defence of McTaggart’s Proof of the Unreality of Time” offered an influential interpretation of McTaggart’s famous proof. My aim in today’s talk is not to assess the cogency of McTaggart’s reasoning, but to evaluate the various theses about time and space which…
Matt Kopec (Charles Stuart Uni/ANU): Unifying Group Rationality
Activity
Various social epistemologists use what seem to be rather distinct notions of group rationality. In this essay, I offer an account of group rationality that unifies the dominant notions present in the literature. I argue that if we employ a teleological account of epistemic rationality, and allow…
Udit Bhatia (Oxford): Against Epistocracy: Reconsidering the Demographic Objection
Other
Why should we prefer democracy to an epistocracy of competent persons? In his response to this question, David Estlund appeals to the ‘demographic objection’. He argues that ‘The educated portion of the populace may disproportionately have epistemically damaging features that countervail the…
Sally Shrapnel (UQ): Do Quantum Causal Models Explain Bell Violations?
Seminar
Quantum correlations that violate Bell inequalities seem to defy causal explanation: counterfactual accounts fall foul of relativity and probabilistic accounts violate Reichenbach’s principle. In this talk, I will present an interventionist account of causation that seeks to explain not only Bell…