In their recent “Moral Fictionalism vs. The Rest,” (Australasian J. Phil. 83 (Sept. 2005), 307-330), Daniel Nolan, Greg Restall, and Caroline West do a very illuminating job of characterizing moral fictionalism, laying out its advantages, and opening up some challenges facing the view. With standard […] Read More
We are happy to announce that Michael Huemer has accepted our invitation to become the newest PEA Brain! Mike is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he specializes in ethics, metaethics, and epistemology. Welcome, Mike! We’re looking forward to your […] Read More
Below the fold are most of the ethics-related sessions at the upcoming Pacific Division APA. It’s surprising how many more ethics-related sessions there are at the Pacific than at December’s Eastern meeting. If I’ve missed any session that you think should be added to the […] Read More
The deadline for submitting papers to the Online Philosophy Conference, which looks like it will be an exciting electronic event, has been extended to January 31. (I’m guessing there’s still a need for commentators as well.)
Stephen Darwall has advanced the rational care theory of welfare, a metaethical thesis about the meaning of welfare judgments. Somewhat informally, here’s the view: RCTW: to say that some state of affairs x would be good for someone is to say that anyone who cares […] Read More
My previous pre-vital nonexistence is not, and was not, bad for me. My previous pre-vital nonexistence is relevantly similar to my forthcoming post-mortem nonexistence—that is, just as it is true to say that my going out of existence sooner than I might have means that […] Read More
It’s holiday time, and lots of good food is being ingested, so I figured this might be a good opportunity to explore an issue that’s caused me significant moral squirming over the past several years. I’m a carnivore. Yes, I said it. But I’m finding […] Read More
We’ve had past discussions here at PEA Soup about agenda-setting books in ethics and important articles. But like most of you, I’m overwhelmed by the amount of material published. (My fantasy is to hire someone who knows my interests, concerns, predilections, and the like, who […] Read More
Suppose you find yourself in a situation in which you can either save A and B or save C. A, B and C are relevantly similar – all are strangers to you, none is more deserving of life than any other, none is responsible for […] Read More