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87Uncertainty and the ethics of clinical trialsTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 27 (2): 149-167. 2006.A probabilistic explication is offered of equipoise and uncertainty in clinical trials. In order to be useful in the justification of clinical trials, equipoise has to be interpreted in terms of overlapping probability distributions of possible treatment outcomes, rather than point estimates representing expectation values. Uncertainty about treatment outcomes is shown to be a necessary but insufficient condition for the ethical defensibility of clinical trials. Additional requirements are propo…Read more
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44The Structure of Values and NormsCambridge University Press. 2001.Formal representations of values and norms are employed in several academic disciplines and specialties, such as economics, jurisprudence, decision theory and social choice theory. Sven Ove Hansson closely examines such foundational issues as the values of wholes and the values of their parts, the connections between values and norms, how values can be decision-guiding and the structure of normative codes with formal precision. Models of change in both preferences and norms are offered, as well …Read more
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30The Moral Oracle’s TestEthical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (4): 643-651. 2014.When presented with a situation involving an agent’s choice between alternative actions, a moral oracle says what the agent is allowed to do. The oracle bases her advice on some moral theory, but the nature of that theory is not known by us. The moral oracle’s test consists in determining whether a series of questions to the oracle can be so constructed that her answers will reveal which of two given types of theories she adheres to. The test can be applied to moral theories in order to determin…Read more
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1Twelve theses on the use of logic in moral philosophyJournal of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research 27 (2). 2010.Logic is a useful tool in moral philosophy, since it provides us with precise tools to study the structure of moral concepts and moral argumentation. Twelve theses on the use of logic in moral philosophy are put forward, emphasizing the possibilities but also pointing out some of the pitfalls.
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693Avdelningen för Filosofi, Institutionen för Filosofi och Teknikhistoria, KTH, Stockholm. Detta dokument får tills vidare fritt användas och kopieras.
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44The Ethics of Doing EthicsScience and Engineering Ethics 23 (1): 105-120. 2017.Ethicists have investigated ethical problems in other disciplines, but there has not been much discussion of the ethics of their own activities. Research in ethics has many ethical problems in common with other areas of research, and it also has problems of its own. The researcher’s integrity is more precarious than in most other disciplines, and therefore even stronger procedural checks are needed to protect it. The promotion of some standpoints in ethical issues may be socially harmful, and ev…Read more
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31The rôle of language in belief revisionStudia Logica 70 (1). 2002.Analytical tools that give precision to the concept of "independence of syntax" are developed in the form of a series of substitutivity principles. These principles are applied in a study of the rôle of language in belief revision theory. It is shown that sets of sentences can be used in models of belief revision to convey more information than what is conveyed by the combined propositional contents of the respective sets. It is argued that it would be unwise to programmatically restrain the use…Read more
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787The paper introduces ten open problems in belief revision theory, related to the representation of the belief state, to different notions of degrees of belief, and to the nature of change operations. It is argued that these problems are all issues in philosopical logic, in the strong sense of requiring inputs from both logic and philosophy for their solution.
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77The limits of precautionFoundations of Science 2 (2): 293-306. 1997.The maximin rule can be used as a formal version of the precautionary principle. This paper evaluates the feasibility and the intuitive plausibility of this decision rule. The major conclusions are: (1) Precaution has to be applied symmetrically. (2) Precaution is only possible when outcomes are comparable in terms of value, so that it can be determined which outcome is worst. (3) Precaution is sensitive to standards of possibility. Far-away scenarios have to be excluded, and it is difficult to …Read more
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542Value statements can be divided into three major groups according to how their criteria of evaluation are specified. The first of these groups consists of those value statements that are unspecified with respect to the criteria of evaluation. Here is one example: Her decision was very good. The second group consists of the viewpoint-specified value statements. In these value statements, an explicit point of view is given, from which the evaluation is made. We often use adverbs such as “morally”,…Read more
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10The Rôle of Language In Belief RevisionStudia Logica 70 (1): 5-21. 2002.Analytical tools that give precision to the concept of "independence of syntax" are developed in the form of a series of substitutivity principles. These principles are applied in a study of the rôle of language in belief revision theory. It is shown that sets of sentences can be used in models of belief revision to convey more information than what is conveyed by the combined propositional contents of the respective sets. It is argued that it would be unwise to programmatically restrain the use…Read more
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72The False Dichotomy between Coherentism and FoundationalismJournal of Philosophy 104 (6): 290-300. 2007.
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34The Ethics of Technology: Methods and Approaches (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield International. 2017.This book provides students with a toolbox for the study of the ethics of technology, exploring the methods available for ethical assessments of technologies and their social introduction. An international team of leading experts in the field provides the first comprehensive treatment of the topic, including case studies and annotated further reading.
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29Safe DesignTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 10 (1): 45-52. 2006.Safety is an essential ethical requirement in engineering design. Strategies for safe design are used not only to reduce estimated probabilities of injuries but also to cope with hazards and eventualities that cannot be assigned meaningful probabilities. The notion of safe design has important ethical dimensions, such as that of determining the responsibility that a designer has for future uses of the designed object.
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6Time and decision. Economic and psychological perspectives on intertemporal choiceErkenntnis 64 (3): 419-422. 2006.
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31Scopes, Options, and Horizons – Key Issues in Decision StructuringEthical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (2): 259-273. 2018.Real-life decision-making often begins with a disorderly decision problem that has to be clarified and systematized before a decision can be made. This is the process of decision structuring that has largely been ignored both in decision theory and applied decision analysis. In this contribution, ten major components of decision structuring are identified, namely the determination of its scope, subdivision, agency, timing, options, control ascriptions, framing, horizon, criteria and restructurin…Read more
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