Ethics and Political Philosophy Group Talk (Stephen White, Northwestern)

The Ethics and Political Philosophy Research Interest Group welcomes Stephen White, assistant professor at Northwestern University. Professor White works primarily in ethics and political philosophy, with concentrations in the notion of responsibility, partiality and impartiality, private vs. public morality, wrongdoing, and practical reason.

Talk Title

Self-Prediction in Practical Reasoning

Talk Abstract

Are predictions about how one will freely and intentionally behave in the future ever relevant to how one ought to behave? There is good reason to think they are. As imperfect agents, we have responsibilities of self-management, which require that we take account of the predictable ways we’re liable to go wrong. To understand the role of self-prediction, however, we need a way to distinguish instances of coping responsibly with an anticipated failure to behave as one ought, on the one hand, from mere acquiescence in one’s flaws, on the other. I argue that, to draw this distinction, we need to recognize certain limits on the use of self-prediction as a ground of choice.

About the Ethics and Political Philosophy Group

The Ethics and Political Philosophy Group meets periodically throughout the year to discuss topics in value theory and related fields, including: meta-ethics, normative ethics, applied ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, moral psychology, practical reason, agency, and identity.