It isn’t saying much to claim that morality is demanding; the question, rather, is: can morality be so demanding that we have reason not to follow its dictates? According to many, it can, if that morality is a consequentialist one. This paper takes the plausibility and coherence of this objection – the Demandingness Objection – as a given. Our question, therefore, is how to respond to the Objection. ...

Can morality be so demanding that we have reason not to follow its dictates? According to many, it can, if that morality is a consequentialist one. We take the plausibility and coherence of this objection – the Demandingness Objection – as a given and are also not concerned with finding the best response to the Objection. Instead, our main aim is to explicate the intuitive background of the Objection ...

The development of critical thinking is a rationale for higher education and an important aspect of online educational discussions. A key component in most accounts of critical thinking is to evaluate the tenability of claims. The community of inquiry framework is among the most influential frameworks for research on online educational discussions. In this framework, cognitive presence accounts ...

The aim of this paper is to clarify Kierkegaard’s concept of demonic despair (and demonic evil) and to show its relevance for discussions of the guise of the good thesis (i.e. that in φ-ing intentionally, we take φ-ing to be good). Contemporary discussions of diabolic evil often emphasise the phenomena of despair and acedia as apparent counter-examples to the guise of the good. I contend that ...

Objectives: To explore how factors relating to grades and grading affect the correctness of choices that grantreview panels make among submitted proposals. To identify interventions in panel design that may be expected to increase the correctness of choices.<p> <p>Method: Experimentation with an empirically-calibrated computer simulation model of panel review. Model parameters are set in accordance ...

A notable feature of our practice of blaming is that blamees can dismiss blame for their own blameworthy actions when the blamer is censuring them hypocritically and, as it is often put, lacks standing to blame them as a result. This feature has received a good deal of philosophical attention in recent years. By contrast, no attention has been given the possibility that, likewise, refraining from ...

The existential risk posed by ubiquitous artificial intelligence (AI) is a subject of frequent discussion with descriptions of the prospect of misuse, the fear of mass destruction, and the singularity. In this paper I address an underexplored category of existential risk posed by AI, namely emotional risk. Values are a main source of emotions. By challenging some of our most essential values, AI ...

We address the ethics of scenarios in which one party (the ‘agent’) entraps, intentionally tempts, or intentionally tests the virtue of another (the ‘target’). We classify, in a new manner, three distinct types of acts that are of concern, namely acts of entrapment, of (mere) intentional temptation and of (mere) virtue testing. Our classification is, for each kind of scenario, of itself neutral ...

Epistemic injustice groups together different phenomena that inhibit us from accessing or producing knowledge due to prejudices about certain groups. Epistemic injustice describes situations in which speakers’ knowledge is falsely discredited due to their group membership. It can also describe the lack of concepts for describing experiences, and the connected knowledge, of marginalised groups as ...

The aftermath of the European refugee crisis can be said to have sparked a crisis of solidarity. Despite abundant demonstrations of solidarity with refugees and asylum seekers, what many saw as an exercise of their duty to help was made illegal. The critical term that emerged to refer to this conjuncture was “criminalization of solidarity”. In order to include this term in the academic debate, this ...