Dear Cambridge philosophers of science, In a welcome departure from our originally scheduled pause, CamPoS is happening tomorrow, 21 February. It is, as usual, at 1 p.m. in the HPS department in seminar room 2. Mariam Thalos of Utah will speak on 'Disaggregating Goods'. (This talk was originally scheduled for the HPS departmental seminar on the 22nd.) Her abstract is below.
Sincerely, J. Brian Pitts Abstract: The history of the theory of decision is profoundly consequentialist, as perhaps it must be, at least regarding certain decision contexts. The central task, within such a theory, is to weigh the consequences on a scale that can take everything into consideration simultaneously. But this task is monumental, and potentially impossible. Not that the consequences are unknowable---although that too is a problem. I will set that problem to one side for this study. The problem I am focusing on is that consequences, goods of value generally, are very hard to mensurate, whether we are considering a decision from the point of view of ethics or not. I shall argue here that the wisest way with the question of weighing goods is not via a means of aggregating their value, but instead via a judicious means of dis-aggregating them. This goes very much against the tradition in decision analysis. I want to articulate the reasons why this is the most defensible form of consequentialism. -- J. Brian Pitts Senior Research Associate Faculty of Philosophy University of Cambridge [email protected] Ph.D., Philosophy/History & Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame Ph.D., Physics, University of Texas at Austin _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
