Colloquium (Caspar Hare, MIT)

We are thrilled to welcome as our Fall 2020 colloquium speaker Caspar Hare, a professor of Philosophy in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. His main interests lie in ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. The general theme of his recent work has been to bring ideas about practical rationality and metaphysics to bear on issues in normative ethics and epistemology. Professor Hare has written numerous articles on ethics, metaphysics, and practical rationality, as well as two books. On Myself, and Other, Less Important Subjects (Princeton University Press 2009) deals with the metaphysics of perspective. The Limits of Kindness (Oxford University Press 2013) concerns normative ethics.

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Talk Title

Pleasing the Crowd Within

Talk Abstract

Some metaphysicians tell us that in the near vicinity of every person there are many further person-like things, with slightly different mereological, temporal or modal properties. So, for example, in the near vicinity of David Attenborough there is Hairless David Attenborough. Hairless David Attenborough is just like David Attenborough except in this respect: David Attenborough’s hair is part of David Attenborough, but not part of Hairless David Attenborough. Suppose they are right. Does this have any bearing on what we ought to believe and do in ordinary contexts? I say it does, though not for the reasons you might think.