The Centre for Ethics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs University of St. Andrews This workshop took place 25-26 February, 2021. The four presented papers were: Deryn Thomas – University of St. Andrews/University of Stirling: “Basic Income and The Collective Benefits of Work”. Paper here and slides here. Maria Koumenta – Queen Mary University of London: … Read more
Title: The Permissibility of Lesser Evil Abstract: Flood: Flood water is headed toward a cave where five innocent people are trapped and will be killed if the water reaches them. The water can be diverted into a mineshaft, but innocent Betty is trapped in the mineshaft and will be killed if the water is redirected. … Read more
Title: Biased Evaluative Descriptions Abstract: In 2008, Joseph Biden called Barack Obama “an African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Though intended as a compliment, such a description would not be applied to a non-African-American leader in the same context. Such biased evaluative descriptions, roughly, well-intended descriptions whose apparently positive surface … Read more
The Epistemic Value of Affective Intentional Experience In this paper, I argue that despite risks of falsehood, theorists should recognize that affective intentional experience (AIE), which includes emotions, pains/pleasures and some gut feelings, can be a source of knowledge and justification. Indeed, AIE provides the best explanation for how we know certain things. I will … Read more
TITLE: RISK AND AMBIGUITY IN ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING ABSTRACT: Some of my choices are primarily guided by the interests of others: for example, which charities to give to or which political policies to vote for. Other of my choices have at least a significant component where I must take others’ interests into account, though perhaps I … Read more
Title: ‘Conflict, Discord, and Strife’ Abstract: Given that interpersonal relationships are relationships between persons, we might hold out hope that a better philosophical understanding of the nature of persons can help us to better understand the structure and dynamics of interpersonal relationships. In this talk I will argue that this thought is correct. In particular, … Read more
Title: ‘The Problem of Polarization’ Abstract: “The cure for democracy’s ills is more democracy.” This popular adage is false. Contemporary democracy faces problems that have their source in otherwise laudable forms of political participation. In short, enactments of democratic citizenship heighten our exposure to polarization, which in turn erodes our capacities to perform well as … Read more
Title: ‘How To Be a Pluralist About Gender’ Abstract: There are various of attractive accounts of gender kinds on offer (Haslanger 2012, Asta 2018), as well as accounts of the ontology of human social kinds (or social groups) more broadly (Mallon 2016, Ritchie 2020) that are much more conducive to feminist aims than a lot … Read more