Dear all, The next USyd philosophy postgraduate colloquium will be held on Monday May 19 @ 2pm in the Muniment room (Quadrangle building, University of Sydney).
Talk details: Title: Risky Population Decisions and the Value of Nonexistence Abstract: The population ethics literature has so far focused on acts with known outcomes. However, a useful moral decision procedure must arbitrate between risky acts. I will address the extension of utilitarian moral theories to risky population decisions. In particular, I will discuss the significance of claims about the value of nonexistence. Should we assign a utility value (for example, 0) to nonexistence? To answer 'No' at first seems to undermine the use of standard decision theory in population decisions. I will show that this is not the case; and indeed, that not assigning a utility value to nonexistence leads to better conclusions in some risky population decisions. Please come along, all welcome.
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