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Anti-vaxxers & Other Sceptics (Forum for Philosophy)

28 October 2020|

 

Anti-vaxxers & Other Sceptics (Forum for Philosophy)

Will a future COVID vaccine be undermined by anti-vaxxers? What are the causes of declining vaccination rates? Why does this medical scepticism persist, and how might it be tackled? Or might there be times when scepticism is justified? And if so, how are we to determine when we should and when […]

Richard Bradley (LSE): “Social Ethics Under Ambiguity”

28 October 2020|

 

Richard Bradley (LSE): “Social Ethics Under Ambiguity”

In his two famous papers of 1953 and 1955 defending Utilitarianism, Harsanyi draws on the same simple idea: that to determine what is morally best we should put ourselves in the shoes of an impartial, but sympathetic, rational evaluator of states of affairs that differ in terms of the wellbeing of […]

Marius Backmann (LSE): “Time for Freedom”

27 October 2020|

 
Marius Backmann (LSE): “Time for Freedom”
Views on free will are classically classified along their compatibility with determinism. Accounts that require a power to do otherwise require the existence of alternative future possibilities, which are taken to be incompatible with determinism. I argue that determinism does not automatically imply that the future is not settled, and neither does […]

On Time (Forum for Philosophy)

20 October 2020|

 

On Time (Forum for Philosophy)

‘Time is a big invisible thing that will kill you’, wrote philosopher Craig Callender. It also affects all aspects of our lives, from the political to the very nature of our experience. As lockdown made clear, it can be agonizing to be in a state of limbo, to have routines disrupted, unable to […]

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    Henrique Gomes & Jeremy Butterfield (Cambridge): “Geometrodynamics as Functionalism about Time”

Henrique Gomes & Jeremy Butterfield (Cambridge): “Geometrodynamics as Functionalism about Time”

19 October 2020|

 

Henrique Gomes & Jeremy Butterfield (Cambridge): “Geometrodynamics as Functionalism about Time”

A recent literature about a doctrine called ‘spacetime functionalism’ focuses on how the physics of matter and radiation contributes to determining, or perhaps even determines or explains, chrono-geometry. Thus spacetime functionalism is closely related to relational, and specifically Machian, approaches to chrono-geometry and dynamics; and to what […]

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    David Kinney (Santa Fe): “Why Average When You Can Stack? Better Methods for Generating Accurate Group Credences”

David Kinney (Santa Fe): “Why Average When You Can Stack? Better Methods for Generating Accurate Group Credences”

14 October 2020|

 

David Kinney (Santa Fe): “Why Average When You Can Stack? Better Methods for Generating Accurate Group Credences”

Formal and social epistemologists have devoted significant attention to the question of how to aggregate the credences of a group of agents who disagree about the probabilities of events. Most of this work focuses on strategies for calculating the mean credence […]

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    Aron Vallinder (Forethought Foundation, Oxford): “The Evidentialist’s Wager”

Aron Vallinder (Forethought Foundation, Oxford): “The Evidentialist’s Wager”

7 October 2020|

 

Aron Vallinder (Forethought Foundation, Oxford): “The Evidentialist’s Wager”

Suppose that an altruistic and morally motivated agent who is uncertain between evidential decision theory (EDT) and causal decision theory (CDT) finds herself in a situation in which the two theories give conflicting verdicts. We argue that even if she has significantly higher credence in CDT, she should nevertheless act […]

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    Ali Boyle (Cambridge): “Don’t Ask: Classification in Comparative Cognitive Science”

Ali Boyle (Cambridge): “Don’t Ask: Classification in Comparative Cognitive Science”

12 May 2020|

 

Ali Boyle (Cambridge): “Don’t Ask: Classification in Comparative Cognitive Science”

Many projects in comparative cognitive science (which I mean to include research in both comparative psychology and artificial intelligence) are structured around what I’ll call ‘classificatory questions’ – that is, questions about whether nonhuman cognitive systems have the same cognitive capacities as humans. These projects […]

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    Susanne Burri and Bryan Roberts (LSE): “The Good News About Killing People”

Susanne Burri and Bryan Roberts (LSE): “The Good News About Killing People”

18 March 2020|

 

Susanne Burri and Bryan Roberts (LSE): “The Good News About Killing People”

We propose a ‘Cautionary News Principle’ when justifying the decision to commit an irreversible act, such as one that involves killing. The principle states that whether such a decision is justified depends on the extent of possible cautionary news in the future, whereas confirmatory news can […]

Nature/Nurture (Forum for Philosophy)

7 March 2020|

 

 

Nature/Nurture (Forum for Philosophy)

Scientists agree that nature and nurture are essential ingredients in human development. But if both the blank slate and genetic determinism have been rejected, why do researchers still disagree and what is it that they disagree about? Join us as we’ll explore the issues at stake, taking a wide variety of perspectives, from the […]