Title: Justice Before Role Obligations Abstract: Many believe that agents in the justice system are morally constrained to follow certain assigned roles, understood as excluding the exercise of moral judgement: lawyers to serve the interests of their clients, judges to enforce the law as written by the legislature, and juries to assess the factual evidence…
Title: The Labours of Chronic Illness Abstract:聽In this presentation, I aim to explain the three types of labour-聽administrative labour, hermeneutic labour and epistemic labour- that chronically ill people have to engage in to get good care. The goal is to highlight why being chronically ill is often considered by many chronically ill people to be…
Title: Hume鈥檚 Account of Virtue and Its Place in the History of Ethics Abstract: Hume鈥檚 account of virtue is notoriously puzzling. On the one hand, he claims that the virtues are qualities useful or agreeable to oneself or to others. On the other, he says that they are qualities which give a pleasing sentiment of…
Location:聽Edgecliffe G03 Title: Ought and the Transmission of Reasons Abstract:聽According to the widely held Weightiest Reasons view about how reasons for action and the practical ought are related to one another, (WR)聽 an agent ought to 蠁 if, and only if, the reasons for 蠁 are weightier than the reasons for every incompatible alternative to…
Title:聽Beyond the Now:聽Epistemic Oppression and the 鈥淐ommon鈥� Sense of Incarceration Abstract:聽In this presentation, I narrate an聽encounter with 2 Black teenagers who attempted to steal my cellphone and the聽difficulty of insisting on聽accountability while avoiding the worst parts of the聽state-run criminal justice system. Ultimately, I demonstrate that, at times,聽when a situation calls for聽accountability for a serious wrongdoing…
Title: Epistemic Akrasia: No Apology Required Abstract: It is natural to think that rationality imposes some relationship between what a person believes, and what she believes about what she鈥檚 rational to believe. Epistemic akrasia鈥攆or example, believing P while believing that P is not rational to believe in your situation鈥攊s often seen as intrinsically irrational. This…
Title: Legislative Intent: A Rational Unity Account (co-authored with David Tan (Deakin University)) Abstract:聽Does the legislature have intentions concerning the effects of legislation? If so, how can that intent be known by outsiders? Existing theories of legislative intent can be divided into three camps: skepticism, constructivism, and realism. This paper begins by outlining problems for…
Location:聽Edgecliffe G03 Title: How to Build Morality into AI Abstract: AI is spreading fast. We humans need to figure out the best way to prevent AI from making the worst decisions, which are harmful, unfair, or otherwise morally wrong. One way is to design AI to predict what humans would judge to be immoral if…
Title: 鈥淐ompensation for Wrongful Life鈥� Abstract: In a recent case in the UK, a 20-year-old woman with spina bifida brought an action against her mother鈥檚 physician for failing to advise her to take folic acid supplements for several months before becoming pregnant. The court ruled in the woman鈥檚 favor, accepting her claim that, had the…
Location:聽Edgecliffe G03 and Teams Title: 鈥淧erson-Affecting Consequentialism: Equity-Regarding, Desert-Neutral, Repugnant鈥� Abstract: The philosophical literature on consequentialism regularly distinguishes between 鈥減erson-affecting鈥� and 鈥渋mpersonal鈥� moral justifications or accounts.聽聽 The 鈥減erson-affecting鈥�/鈥漣mpersonal鈥� distinction can be interpreted in various ways.聽 I understand it as follows.聽 A person-affecting justificatory framework sees individuals鈥� well-being gains and losses鈥攚ell-being effects on persons鈥攁s the fundamental…
Location:聽Edgecliffe G03 Title: Hume鈥檚 Account of Virtue and Its Place in the History of Ethics Abstract: Hume鈥檚 account of virtue is notoriously puzzling. On the one hand, he claims that the virtues are qualities useful or agreeable to oneself or to others. On the other, he says that they are qualities which give a pleasing…
Location:聽School 6 Title: Counterfactual Decision Theory Abstract: I defend counterfactual decision theory, which says that you should evaluate an act in terms of which outcomes would likely obtain, were you to perform it. Counterfactual decision theory has traditionally been subsumed under causal decision theory as a particular formulation of the latter. This is a mistake.…
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