Philosophy seminar tomorrow at 3pm: "A Unified Solution to Philosophical Puzzles about Harm, Death & Risk"

[Cohen, Daniel]

Philosophy Seminar Series

THURSDAY, 14 December 2017

CSU, Wagga Wagga. Building 26 (Marchant Hall), Room 212, 3-5pm (NOTE UNUSUAL TIME)

Gerard Vong (Emory University)

"A Unified Solution to Philosophical Puzzles about Harm, Death & Risk"

ABSTRACT: The counterfactual account of harm is arguably the best known and most commonsense account of harm, where an act  harms X if X is worse off than she would have been if  hadn’t occurred. However this account is purportedly subject to persistent and compelling counterexample-based objections (e.g. preemption cases). These counterexamples are so compelling to some philosophers, such as Ben Bradley, that they suggest we ought to “avoid appealing to the notion of harm at all in our moral theorizing”. Similarly, the deprivationist account of the potential disvalue of death is arguably the best known account of death’s potential disvalue, but it is also subject to persistent and compelling objections. According to the deprivationist account, a death D is bad for X if and only if, and because and to the extent that, the life that X would have had if D had not occurred would have been better for X than the life that ended with D. Again, these objections are so compelling that some philosophers reject the deprivationist account of death’s potential disvalue, and some go further still in also rejecting the view that death can be bad for its victim simpliciter. In this paper I defend a new view about wellbeing that responds to the aforementioned objections in a unified way, while also offering a resolution to unsolved puzzles from both moral philosophy and tort law.



For details about future seminars, please see: waggaphilosophy.com

Cheers,

Daniel


Daniel Cohen
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University
Tel: +61 2 6933 2565
Email: dco...@csu.edu.au

| ALBURY-WODONGA | BATHURST | CANBERRA | DUBBO | GOULBURN | MELBOURNE | ORANGE | PORT MACQUARIE | SYDNEY | WAGGA WAGGA |

LEGAL NOTICE
This email (and any attachment) is confidential and is intended for the use of the addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must not copy, distribute, take any action in reliance on it or disclose it to anyone. Any confidentiality is not waived or lost by reason of mistaken delivery. Email should be checked for viruses and defects before opening. Charles Sturt University (CSU) does not accept liability for viruses or any consequence which arise as a result of this email transmission. Email communications with CSU may be subject to automated email filtering, which could result in the delay or deletion of a legitimate email before it is read at CSU. The views expressed in this email are not necessarily those of CSU.
Charles Sturt University in Australia The Grange Chancellery, Panorama Avenue, Bathurst NSW Australia 2795 (ABN: 83 878 708 551; CRICOS Provider Number: 00005F (National)). TEQSA Provider Number: PV12018
Consider the environment before printing this email.