The Research Seminar Series in Philosophy invites you to a seminar with Victor Moberger, "Impossible Ethics".
Abstract:
The field of population ethics is famous for its many impossibility results, which putatively show that certain intuitively plausible, or even compelling, adequacy conditions for ranking populations in terms of social welfare cannot be reconciled. Over the past four decades or so, there has been much discussion within population ethics about the implications of the results, not least with respect to the prospects of developing a viable and comprehensive population axiology. While this literature is primarily focused on first-order issues, it also contains several interesting but usually brief suggestions concerning metaethical implications, i.e., implications concerning the semantics, metaphysics, and epistemology of moral thought and discourse in general. I will focus on what I call the skeptical challenge, according to which population ethical impossibility results pose a serious threat to the reliability of our moral intuitions. My aim is to explore and evaluate this challenge, thus moving beyond the brief remarks found in the extant literature. In addition to clarifying the issues, I will argue that, despite initial promises, population ethical impossibility results do not in fact support any skeptical metaethical conclusions.
All interested are welcome to participate in this seminar.
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