PEA Soup Discussion of “Whether and Where to Give”
An online discussion of Theron Pummer’s “Whether and Where to Give” (in Philosophy & Public Affairs, 2016) with a critical précis by Johann Frick.
Commentaries
Stop Supporting the Living Wage Movement!
Ben Sachs argues that there are reasons to be wary of the campaign for a living wage.
The dirty politics of scapegoating – and why victims are always the harmless, easy targets
Alex Douglas on scapegoating in current politics.
Values, Voting, and Expertise
Katherine Hawley asks: How far can we trust experts when we’re deciding how to vote?
Presidents Club dinner: why good deeds never justify bad actions
Anh Quan Nguyen in The Conversation, on moral licensing.
Risky Giving
Non-consequentialist criteria imply that it is not wrong to give to at least some of the charities that Singer and other effective altruists recommend, even when this comes with significant risk of doing harm.
Population Ethics and Indeterminacy
How should we compare a decrease in average quality of life with a gain in population size? Can invoking indeterminacy help solve the difficult theoretical problems in population ethics?
Practical Philosophy: A Historical Introduction
Excerpt from John Haldane’s *Practical Philosophy: Ethics, Culture and Society* (2009) ‘Introduction’.
Scots thinkers who forged new democracy from the colonies
An article by John Haldane that first appeared in the Scotsman newspaper in 2008.
Democratic Deficit
Extract from Chapter 1 of past Knox Lecturer Neil MacCormick’s short book *Who’s Afraid of a European Constitution?* (2005).