"The Nature of Necessity" My talk will be about the concept of ‘necessity’ – the idea that some propositions are not merely true, but necessarily true. Or, to put it in less technical-sounding terms, that certain facts have to obtain; that things … Read more
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), directed by Michel Gondry
"I Didn’t Do It: Very Implausible Denials and Social Unreality" Abstract: When I make a very implausible denial, I deny phi-ing, in a context in which (1) before I speak, it is common knowledge that I phi-ed and (2) after I … Read more
"National Partiality, Immigration, and the Problem of Double-Jeopardy" ABSTRACT: A foundational conviction of contemporary liberal thought is that all persons matter equally. However, states frequently pursue policies that are strikingly partial towards compatriots over foreigners. A common strategy for justifying this partiality … Read more
"A Plea for Translational Ethics" Philosophical ethics, like philosophy as a whole, is sometimes caricatured as an overly abstract and theoretical enterprise. In fact it has always cared about “the real world”; but its modes and methodologies of engaging with … Read more
Possible Worlds (2000), directed by Robert Lepage
"Infinite Ethics Meets Decision Theory" ABSTRACT: Some classic forms of utilitarianism presume that the goodness of a state of affairs can be determined by adding up numerical representations of the welfare of each of the people. When a population is … Read more
Force Majeure (2014), directed by Ruben Östlund
“When Ethics Must Keep Up with Fast-Paced Biomedical Science: The Case of HIV Cure Research” Karine Dubé, DrPH, MPhil (Oxon), a former Morehead-Cain Scholar at UNC and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, is now an Assistant Professor in UNC's Gillings School … Read more
