Jensen Sass (UC): Ritual Deliberation: The Value of a Non-Ideal Practice
Other
Deliberation based on the exchange of arguments and reasons is standardly regarded as a rational process par excellence, one that invites actors to reflect on and revise their beliefs, preferences, and perhaps even values. Yet in political deliberation actors routinely talk past one another. They…
Declan Smithies (OSU): Affective Experience, Reasons for Action, and Desire
Other
What is the role of affective experience in explaining how desires provide us with reasons for action? When we desire that p, we are disposed to feel attracted to the prospect that p, and to feel averse to the prospect that not p. In this paper, we argue that these affective experiences – feelings…
Lachlan Walmsley (ANU): How climate simulations earn their credentials
Other
Climate models are complicated things. Their construction often begins with off-the-shelf physical equations, but these equations are always approximated, and typically the approximation is rough. For us to trust a climate model and its results, it must earn its credentials. There are at least two…
Suzy Killmister (UCONN): Dignity for the Cognitively Disabled
Other
Many theories of dignity - including one I've defended myself - have the unpalatable implication that individuals with severe cognitive disabilities lack dignity. Since dignity is commonly taken to be the feature in virtue of which individuals are owed basic forms of respect, this implication is…
Living Ethically in the 21st Century - Philosophy and Public Policy Lecture Series
Lecture
To live ethically in the 21st century as a citizen of an affluent country like Australia, it is not, Peter Singer contends, enough to abide by conventional moral rules which tell us not to do certain things. The world has changed, and our responsibilities have also changed accordingly. He will…
Kirsten Mann (ANU): Aggregation cases and the large numbers objection (TPR)
Other
Can a very large number of instances of low (but positive) value outweigh a small number of instances of very high value? When faced with thought experiments like the Repugnant Conclusion and Life for Headaches, many of us have the strong intuition that they cannot: no number of headaches cured can…
Philip Pettit (ANU/Princeton): Two Concepts of Free Speech
Other
Free speech raises a question, first, as to what speech options ought to be free and, second, as to what makes a speech option free. This paper assumes that any plausible ideal will require that a wide range of speech options should be free and explores the issue of what makes them free. There are…