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…
Passmore Lecture 2 - Pamela Hieronymi
Seminar
In the 2024 Passmore Lectures, " Freedom and Control", Pamela Hieronymi tackles the philosophical problem of free will, highlighting a fundamental issue about control. We often mistakenly believe that we must control our own willing in the same manner we control actions, objects, or events. This…
Passmore Lecture Series with Prof Hieronymi
Lecture
Join us for the highly anticipated Passmore Lectures from Professor Pamela Hieronymi (UCLA). Lecture 1 Abstract In "Problems in Life and a Problem in Theory," Professor Hieronymi delineates philosophical concerns about free will into two categories: "problems in life" and "a problem in…
Happy Immoralists and Satisfied Loners: A pragmatic perspective on disagreement about well-being- Valerie Tiberius
Seminar
Can a morally bad person live well? Can a person without friends achieve well-being? There is long-standing disagreement about the correct answers to these questions. Valerie offers a diagnosis of the debate between those who answer “no” (objectivists about well-being) and those who answer “…
Recognition and Recruitment in Overt Dogwhistles - Alnica Visser
Seminar
Alnica argues for a distinction between two types of overt dogwhistles. The first, which Alnica calls sense codes, are overt dogwhistles that carry at least two plausible significances, at least one of which is innocent and generally known and thus available to run cover for its other more sinister…
Regret Aversion - Hayden Wilkinson
Seminar
In this paper, Hayden describes patterns of preferences that seem intuitive, and that characterise many real-world agents, but that deviate from orthodox normative decision theory. These preferences even deviate from the various less orthodox decision theories designed to accommodate risk…
Intraspecific Economics: Interpersonal Utility Comparisons, Evolution, and Culture - Armin Schulz
Seminar
One relatively recent pivot in the discussion concerning the possibility of interpersonal utility comparisons (IUC)—one of the foundational questions of economics—is centered on evolutionary biological considerations. In particular, it has been suggested that, since all human beings are part of the…