Rawls' Methodological Blueprint
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Effective Altruism William Macaskill and Theron Pummer
1 Effective Altruism William MacAskill and Theron Pummer Climate change is on course to cause millions of deaths and cost the world economy trillions of dollars. Nearly a billion people live in extreme poverty, millions of them dying each year of easily preventable diseases. Just a small fraction of the thousands of nuclear weapons on hair‐trigger alert could easily bring about global catastrophe. New technologies like synthetic biology and artificial intelligence bring unprece dented risks. Meanwhile, year after year billions and billions of factory‐farmed ani mals live and die in misery. Given the number of severe problems facing the world today, and the resources required to solve them, we may feel at a loss as to where to even begin. The good news is that we can improve things with the right use of money, time, talent, and effort. These resources can bring about a great deal of improvement, or very little, depending on how they are allocated. The effective altruism movement consists of a growing global community of peo ple who use reason and evidence to assess how to do as much good as possible, and who take action on this basis. Launched in 2011, the movement now has thousands of members, as well as influence over billions of dollars. The movement has substan tially increased awareness of the fact that some altruistic activities are much more cost‐effective than others, in the sense that they do much more good than others per unit of resource expended. According to the nonprofit organization GiveWell, it costs around $3,500 to prevent someone from dying of malaria by distributing bed nets. -
Beyond Skepticism Foundationalism and the New Fuzziness: the Role of Wide Reflective Equilibrium in Legal Theory Robert Justin Lipkin
Cornell Law Review Volume 75 Article 2 Issue 4 May 1990 Beyond Skepticism Foundationalism and the New Fuzziness: The Role of Wide Reflective Equilibrium in Legal Theory Robert Justin Lipkin Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Robert Justin Lipkin, Beyond Skepticism Foundationalism and the New Fuzziness: The Role of Wide Reflective Equilibrium in Legal Theory , 75 Cornell L. Rev. 810 (1990) Available at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol75/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cornell Law Review by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BEYOND SKEPTICISM, FOUNDATIONALISM AND THE NEW FUZZINESS: THE ROLE OF WIDE REFLECTIVE EQUILIBRIUM IN LEGAL THEORY Robert Justin Liphint TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .............................................. 812 I. FOUNDATIONALISM AND SKEPTICISM ..................... 816 A. The Problem of Skepticism ........................ 816 B. Skepticism and Nihilism ........................... 819 1. Theoretical and PracticalSkepticism ................ 820 2. Subjectivism and Relativism ....................... 821 3. Epistemic and Conceptual Skepticism ................ 821 4. Radical Skepticism ............................... 822 C. Modified Skepticism ............................... 824 II. NEW FOUNDATIONALISM -
Why Academics Should Join to Stand Against Poverty Thomas Pogge and Luis Cabrera*
ACADEMICS STAND AGAINST POVERTY Outreach, Impact, Collaboration: Why Academics Should Join to Stand Against Poverty Thomas Pogge and Luis Cabrera* t is a typical late afternoon in the Timarpur neighborhood, lying just across the Mahatma Gandhi Marg ring road from the University of Delhi North I Campus. Families gather outside one- and two-room brick living quarters, many of which have only a single draped cloth serving as the front wall. Other homes are made of found materials: cloth or plastic bound over slim wooden poles; a mishmash of blankets, boards, and corrugated metal for walls; metal or blue plastic tarpaulins weighted against the wind with stones and bricks for roofs. A boy of perhaps four fills a bucket at the single communal tap serving a dozen families and wobbles up a set of stairs, sloshing out water with each step. Another child, younger, plays quietly beside a woman sleeping on the pavement under a shelter of plastic and burlap bags. On the street, cycle rickshaw drivers—among the hundreds of thousands of laborers in the city who toil for often less than $ per day—strain as they pedal as many as four passengers or enormous loads of cardboard, rice, build- ing materials, or scrap metal along the margins of the street. They are cut off repeatedly by scooters, motorcycles, cars, buses, and large trucks, all incessantly honking warnings to one another. Across the street from the make- shift housing rise four-story apartment buildings. Air conditioners protrude from the neat plaster exterior of each unit. The complex is enclosed by tall *For helpful feedback, the authors would like to thank Ashok Acharya, Simon Caney, Onora O’Neill, Henry Shue, Gareth Wall, and the editors of this journal. -
Reliable Reasoning: Induction and Statistical Learning Theory
Reliable Reasoning: Induction and Statistical Learning Theory Gilbert Harman and Sanjeev Kulkarni March 14, 2006 ii Reliable Reasoning Contents Series Forward v Introduction vii 1 The Problem of Induction 1 1.1 The Problem . 1 1.2 Inference and Implication . 3 1.3 Reflective Equilibrium . 7 1.4 Worries about Reflective Equilibrium . 9 1.5 Reliability . 14 1.6 A Look Ahead . 15 1.7 Conclusion . 18 2 Induction and VC-Dimension 21 2.1 Pattern Recognition . 21 2.1.1 Pattern Classfication . 22 2.1.2 Function Estimation . 23 2.2 Background Probability Distribution . 24 2.3 Reliability of Rules of Classification and Function Estimation 26 2.3.1 Reliability of a Classification Rule . 26 2.3.2 Reliability of a Rule of Function Estimation . 27 2.4 Inductive Learning . 28 2.4.1 Linear Classification and Estimation Rules . 29 2.5 Conditions for Satisfactory Enumerative Induction . 32 2.6 Popper . 35 2.7 Summary . 36 3 Induction and “Simplicity” 39 3.1 Introduction . 39 3.2 Empirical Error Minimization . 39 iii iv Reliable Reasoning 3.3 Universal Consistency . 40 3.3.1 Nearest Neighbor Rules . 41 3.4 Structural Risk Minimization . 43 3.5 Minimum Description Length . 44 3.6 Simplicity . 45 3.7 Function Estimation and Curve Fitting . 45 3.8 Goodman’s New Riddle . 46 3.9 Popper on Simplicity . 49 3.10 Empirically Equivalent Rules . 52 3.11 Important Ideas from Statistical Learning Theory . 53 3.12 Summary . 54 4 Neural Networks, Support Vector Machines, and Transduction 55 4.1 Introduction . 55 4.2 Machine Learning: Perceptrons . -
The Reflective Equilibrium in Rawls' Theory of Justice: the Perspective
META: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy – VII (2) / 2015 META: RESEARCH IN HERMENEUTICS, PHENOMENOLOGY, AND PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY VOL. VII, NO. 2 / DECEMBER 2015: 336-356, ISSN 2067-3655, www.metajournal.org The Reflective Equilibrium in Rawls’ Theory of Justice: The Perspective of Holistic Pragmatism Mihai Burlacu Transylvania University of Brasov Abstract Interpreting John Rawls’ ‘reflective equilibrium’ method from the perspective of Morton White’s holistic pragmatism entails both an epistemological and a methodological dimension. In this article, I reconsider White’s perspective regarding Rawls’ ‘reflective equilibrium’. This requires a critical examination of the method’s origins and development, with an emphasis on Nelson Goodman’s process of justification and the Duhem-Quine thesis. In order to examine the origins and development of the ‘reflective equilibrium’ method, I also draw upon the writings of Pierre Duhem, Willard Van Orman Quine, Nelson Goodman, Stephen P. Stich and Donald Gillies, among others. Subsequently, I interpret the criticisms that have been formulated against the process of justification elaborated by Goodman and adapted by Rawls. Afterwards, I explain the conceptual links between the ‘Duhem-Quine thesis’ and the ‘reflective equilibrium’ method. In the last chapter, I analyse White’s assertion that Rawls’ theory of justice is a variant of holistic pragmatism. I emphasize how White’s holistic theses coincide to a significant extent with the ideas devised by Rawls regarding the method of ‘reflective equilibrium’ in social justice, and in a more general sense, in ethics. Also, I expound why White’s doctrine is epistemologically holistic and methodologically monistic. Keywords: reflective equilibrium, holistic pragmatism, considered judgment, principles of justice, conjunction of statements, Duhem-Quine thesis, Duhemian conjunction 1. -
Five the METHOD of WIDE REFLECTIVE EQUILIBRIUM IN
Five THE METHOD OF WIDE REFLECTIVE EQUILIBRIUM IN BIOETHICS Juha Räikkä 1. What Is Wide Reflective Equilibrium? The method of wide reflective equilibrium has been widely applied in practical ethics and especially in bioethics. In what follows I would like to say few words on the nature of this method. The method of wide reflective equilibrium (WRE) is a coherence method of justification in ethics. WRE was first introduced by John Rawls in his “The Independence of Moral Theory,” and one of WRE’s strongest proponents has been another American philosopher Norman Daniels.1 As Daniels describes WRE, it is a method which attempts to produce coherence in an ordered triple of sets of beliefs held by a particular person, namely (a) a set of considered moral judgments, (b) a set of moral principles, and (c) a set of relevant (scien- tific and philosophical) background theories.2 When using WRE, a person begins by collecting moral judgments (such as “abortion should be allowed”) which she finds intuitively plausible. Then she proposes alternative sets of moral principles (such as “killing human be- ings is wrong”) that have varying degree of fit with the moral judgments. Fi- nally, she seeks support for those moral judgments and moral principles from background theories (such as “a fetus is not a human being”) that are, in her view, acceptable. As Daniels writes, we can imagine the agent working back and forth, making adjustments to her considered moral judgments, her moral principles and her background theories. Finally, she arrives at an equilibrium point that consists of the ordered triple (a), (b) and (c). -
A Methodological Turn in Political Philosophy: Making Political Philosophy More Scientific?1 Tereza Křepelová Masaryk University, Brno
Public Reason 10 (2) - Public Reason 11 (1): 77-92 © 2019 by Public Reason A Methodological Turn in Political Philosophy: Making Political Philosophy More Scientific?1 Tereza Křepelová Masaryk University, Brno Abstract: The emergence of the first literature concerning the methodology of political philosophy, which we have witnessed over the last decade, indicates a general methodological shift within the discipline. This shift can be interpreted as a sign of the ongoing adjustment of political philosophy to the domain of science that had already begun when analytical political philosophy incorporated from logical positivism the premise of the unity of method of science and philosophy. The urge to have an epistemic source of justification for normative political theories lead analytical political philosophy to the development of various methodological frameworks from among which reflective equilibrium became the most influential one and nowadays it is being considered as the most widely used method in the contemporary political philosophy overall. Reflective equilibrium aims to provide knowledge that falls into the same category as scientific knowledge; however, it can also lead to various normative distortions resulting in the elimination of metaphysics, meta-ethics and religious claims from the normative part of political philosophical theorising. These normative distortions not only can result in epistemically wrong conclusions; above all, they implicitly affirm the normative propositions of political conceptions of liberalism. Hence, the prevalence and uncritical use of reflective equilibrium might narrow the topical scope and undermine the reflective and critical role of the discipline of political philosophy itself. Key words: political science, political philosophy, methodology, analytical political philosophy, logical positivism, political liberalism, epistemic value, epistemic justification, reflective equilibrium, philosophy of science. -
The Methodological Irrelevance of Reflective Equilibrium* Tristram Mcpherson Virginia Tech [email protected]
The methodological irrelevance of reflective equilibrium* Tristram McPherson Virginia Tech [email protected] Penultimate Ms.: the official version will be published in the Palgrave Handbook of Philosophical Methodology Introduction John Rawls’ method of reflective equilibrium is the most influential methodology in contemporary ethics. This paper argues that this influence is undeserved. Rawls’ method is highly implausible. Worse, it is also incapable of performing the work that motivates the search for a moral methodology in the first place. These are bold charges, and I dedicate the bulk of the paper to substantiating them (§§3-5). Several of the objections that I offer have been pressed before. However, when such objections are pressed in isolation from each other, it can seem easy to salvage the spirit (if not the letter) of the method, by judicious adjustment. It is much more difficult to do this once the inadequacies of the method are systematically displayed. I illustrate this point by exploring salient attempts to salvage the spirit of reflective equilibrium by abandoning elements of Rawls’ approach (§6). I argue that none of these attempts succeed. I conclude that appeal to the method of reflective equilibrium is not a helpful means of addressing pressing methodological questions in ethics. In a slogan, reflective equilibrium is methodologically irrelevant. * I am indebted to an audience at Virginia Tech, to participants in Sarah McGrath’s Systematic Ethics seminar at Princeton, and to Chris Daly for helpful comments on this project. I also benefited from comments on a distant ancestor of this paper in the Dissertation Seminar at Princeton. -
Wide Reflective Equilibrium and Theory Acceptance in Ethics Author(S): Norman Daniels Source: the Journal of Philosophy, Vol
Journal of Philosophy, Inc. Wide Reflective Equilibrium and Theory Acceptance in Ethics Author(s): Norman Daniels Source: The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 76, No. 5 (May, 1979), pp. 256-282 Published by: Journal of Philosophy, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2025881 Accessed: 11/08/2009 07:08 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jphil. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Journal of Philosophy, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Philosophy. http://www.jstor.org 256 THE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY did so indirectly (say, by swallowing a placebo); his belief in this false causal efficacy does not alter the fact that he performed the basic action. -
Moorean Arguments and Moral Revisionism
MOOREAN ARGUMENTS AND MORAL REVISIONISM BY TRISTRAM MCPHERSON JOURNAL OF ETHICS & SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY VOL. 3, NO. 2 | JUNE 2009 URL: WWW.JESP.ORG COPYRIGHT © TRISTRAM MCPHERSON 2009 JOURNAL OF ETHICS & SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY | VOL. 3, NO. 2 MOOREAN ARGUMENTS AND MORAL REVISIONISM Tristram McPherson Moorean Arguments and Moral Revisionism Tristram McPherson And how on earth is it to be decided which of the two things it is rational to be most certain of? G. E. Moore, Four Forms of Scepticism (emphasis his) Introduction E. MOORE’S LEGACY TO MORAL philosophy has been both profound and controversial. Most notably, his Principia Ethi- G.ca is often treated as a crucial starting point for work in what is now typically called “metaethics,” and metaethicists have returned again and again to defend, debunk or diagnose the appeal of his Open Question argu- ment. This paper examines the implications for moral philosophy of one of Moore’s other famous (or, depending upon your tastes, infamous) forms of argument: the table-turning maneuver that he deployed against the epistemo- logical skeptic and the metaphysical idealist. Against such revisionary metaphysical and epistemological views, Moore claimed that the following constitutes a proof of the existence of his hands, and thereby of the external world: I can prove now, for instance, that two human hands exist. How? By holding up my two hands and saying, as I make a gesture with the right hand, “Here is one hand,” and adding as I make a certain gesture with the left, “and here is another.” (1959, 145-6) The (implicit) remainder of the proof can be represented as follows: HANDS 1. -
On Thomas Pogge’S Theory of Global Justice Why We Are Not Collectively Responsible for the Global Distribution of Benefits and Burdens Between Individuals
DOI 10.1515/sats-2012-0012 sats 2012; 13(2): 207–222 Søren Flinch Midtgaard On Thomas Pogge’s Theory of Global Justice Why We Are Not Collectively Responsible for the Global Distribution of Benefits and Burdens between Individuals Abstract: Thomas Pogge’s ingenious and influential Rawlsian theory of global justice asserts that principles of justice such as the difference principle or, alter- natively, a universal criterion of human rights consisting of a subset of the prin- ciples of social justice apply to the global basic structure or economic order. Individuals that contribute to upholding the latter and benefit from it are, Pogge emphasizes, jointly responsible for its unjust features, not least for the fact that it, foreseeably and avoidably, affects up to 18 million people per year in such a way that they die. The paper mounts an immanent criticism against Pogge re- volving around his notion of collective responsibility. Especially, it argues that people cannot plausibly be held responsible for the distribution of benefits and burdens between individuals at the global level addressed by the kind of princi- ples Pogge invokes. They, and their governments, can, and should, however, be held responsible for the unjust features of the existing law of peoples or states. Keywords: Thomas Pogge; collective responsibility; principles of justice; princi- ples of the law of peoples Søren Flinch Midtgaard, Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University, Denmark, E-mail: [email protected] 1 Introduction1 Thomas Pogge argues -
Liberal Cosmopolitanism and Economic Justice
LIBERAL COSMOPOLITANISM AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE Katherine Erbeznik A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2008 Committee: Steven Wall, Advisor Rachel A. Vannatta Graduate Faculty Representative Fred D. Miller, Jr. Ellen Frankel Paul Jeffrey Moriarty ii ABSTRACT Steven Wall, Advisor The goal of this dissertation is to answer two questions: Is global poverty unjust, such that coercive remedies may be imposed to alleviate it? And if so, does it justify global redistribution as a remedy? This dissertation takes up the same task initiated by Thomas Pogge in his 2002 book, World Poverty and Human Rights, in that the theory of justice from which these questions are answered assigns priority to negative duties of non-interference, rather than positive duties of assistance. More specifically, the theory of cosmopolitan justice underlying this evaluation is that of natural rights liberalism in the tradition of John Locke and Robert Nozick. According to this theory, global poverty could be unjust only if it was the result of violating individual rights. The first half of the dissertation explores the ways in which Pogge claims poverty is the result of rights violations – that such poverty is the result of a tainted global history and that the current distribution of global resources violates the right to fair shares, – ultimately denying that these ground the injustice of poverty. Instead, I argue that global poverty is unjust because a distribution of resources that contains severe poverty violates the minimal access proviso, a constraint on property rights that takes the deprivation of others to limit the property rights of some.