On behalf of all of us here at PEA Soup, I extend a warm welcome to Jason Kawall, who has graciously accepted our invitation to be a contributor. Jason Kawall is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Colgate University. He specializes in ethics, epistemology, and […] Read More
A common picture of value determination with respect to pains, pleasures and other such mental states seems to be the following: the intrinsic value of such states is determined by their phenomenological character. Thus, some people hold that all pleasures are intrinsically good, and all […] Read More
First, let me apologize to my fellow bloggers at PEA Soup for taking so long to break my silence. I agreed to join a couple of days before leaving for an extended vacation on the East Coast, and upon my return, the great weather we […] Read More
Let’s start off with a rough characterization of what a normative reason (hereafter, simply “reason”) is. The fact that p will be the case if S Xs is a reason for S to X if and only if that p will be the case if […] Read More
It’s widely believed that maximising consequentialism implies that supererogatory action is impossible. And many philosophers, finding the idea of supererogation intuitively plausible, regard this as a reason to reject maximising consequentialism (and perhaps to adopt some form of “satisficing” consequentialism instead). As I shall argue, […] Read More
According to the fitting-attitudes analysis of value (the FA analysis), to be valuable is to be a fitting object of a pro-attitude. For instance, on one version of the FA analysis, what it is for an object to be valuable for its own sake is […] Read More
I’m happy to welcome Campbell Brown as a new contributor to PEASoup. Campbell’s just finishing up his Ph.D. in philosophy from Australian National University, and he’s a Visiting Professor this year at Bowling Green State University. Welcome aboard!
Michael Cholbi’s recent post on the “murderer at the door” case brought up the issue of duties to self, which reminded me of a paper idea I’ve been meaning to develop, and which I thought I’d run by this crowd first. In contrast to current […] Read More
Well, after a long drive, a tense week in a motel, an extended unpacking period, and a series of orientation sessions at BGSU, I’m happy to say I’m back on the blogosphere again. I wanted to extend a belated welcome to our recent additions Scott, […] Read More