Choice Group

Abstract: Two common thoughts about morality appear to pull us in opposite directions. On the one hand, we may conceive of morality as a common set of rules that equally bind every person. Unlike matters of personal vocation, individual ideals, idiosyncratic tastes and preferences, all of which seem to give reasons to some agents but not others, we tend to conceive…

Abstract: We adopt an experimental approach to gauge the philosophers’ view of what exploitation is. Our experimental design does not test existing theories of exploitation. Rather, it focuses on more fundamental properties that are the building blocks for these theories. We find, first, that exploitation is not a vacuous concept: not all economic interactions are deemed exploitative. Second, contrary to several…

Abstract: Can desires be irrational? This paper focuses on the possibility that desires can be irrational in virtue of failing to cohere with other mental states of the person in question (including their other desires). Recent literature on structural irrationality has largely neglected structural requirements on desire, and this paper aims to remedy this neglect, not only to inform that literature,…

Abstract: This paper focuses on non-instrumental values that constitute positive contributions to well-being. The paper asks whether the things that constitute contributions to a person’s well-being involve relations of fittingness. Section 1 of the paper briefly considers the desire-fulfilment theory of well-being and its implications for whether the fittingness of attitudes (including emotions, desires, and beliefs) is a prudential good. Section…

Abstract: Discussion of the relationship between dynamic consistency and the Sure-thing principle has figured prominently in recent debate over the rationality of the kind of ambiguity aversion some display in the Ellsberg paradox; less so in the literature on the preference for fairness postulated by Diamond (1967). Yet both are instances of a preference for randomisation (respectively over events/states and over…

Abstract: It is commonly thought that there is a very tight connection between essence, metaphysical dependence, and fundamentality. This often results in the endorsement of a principle linking Essence To Dependence (Fine 1994; Lowe 2006; Correia 2005; Koslicki 2012; Tahko and Lowe 2020) (ETD) x essentially depends on y iff y appears in x’s essence. And a principle linking Dependence To…

Abstract:  In recent years, several authors have highlighted that models play an important but underappreciated role in ethics and other “normative disciplines.” In these fields, models serve, inter alia, as devices for characterizing, testing, and justifying normative claims. In short, they play quite diverse roles in normative inquiry. However, philosophers concerned with the use of models in normative inquiry have…

Abstract: Recommender systems increasingly serve as essential tools to navigate vast expenses of information. Yet, their proliferation in our everyday lives has raised concern over their potential magnification of social polarisation through the creation of echo chambers and filter bubbles, the exact nature and influence of which has been controversial. If, when, and how recommender systems affect polarization remains an open…

Abstract: Most philosophical discussions of self-control have focused on temptation: on what is needed to resist giving in to appealing alternatives. In contrast a body of work in neuroscience has focussed on when foragers give up on an existing task, and start looking for alternatives. It might seem that that these are just two sides of the same coin: to give…