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5Can there be more than one set of categories?In Gerhard Funke & Thomas M. Seebohm (eds.), Proceedings of the Sixth International Kant Congress, Center For Advanced Research in Phenomenology & University Press of America. 1989.
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27The preface, the lottery, and the logic of beliefMind 108 (430): 241-264. 1999.John Locke proposed a straightforward relationship between qualitative and quantitative doxastic notions: belief corresponds to a sufficiently high degree of confidence. Richard Foley has further developed this Lockean thesis and applied it to an analysis of the preface and lottery paradoxes. Following Foley's lead, we exploit various versions of these paradoxes to chart a precise relationship between belief and probabilistic degrees of confidence. The resolutions of these paradoxes emphasize di…Read more
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34Democratic answers to complex questions: an epistemic perspectiveIn Matti Sintonen (ed.), The Socratic Tradition: Questioning as Philosophy and as Method. Texts in philosophy, College Publications. pp. 223-251. 2006.This paper addresses a problem for theories of epistemic democracy. In a decision on a complex issue which can be decomposed into several parts, a collective can use different voting procedures: Either its members vote on each sub-question and the answers that gain majority support are used as premises for the conclusion on the main issue, or the vote is conducted on the main issue itself. The two procedures can lead to different results. We investigate which of these procedures is better as a t…Read more
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17Sequential counterfactuals, cotenability and temporal becomingIn Timothy Childress, Petr Kolar & Vladimir Svoboda (eds.), Logica '96 : Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium, Filosofía. pp. 41-53. 1997.
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8How to Expand Your Beliefs in an Uncertain World: A Probabilistic ModelIn Gabriele Kern-Isberner, Thomas Lukasiewicz & Emil Weydert (eds.), Ki-2001 Workshop: Uncertainty in Artificial Intellligence. Informatik-Berichte (8/2001), . 2001.Suppose that we acquire various items of information from various sources and that our degree of confidence in the content of the information set is sufficiently high to believe the information. Now a new item of information is being presented by a new information source. Are we justified to add this new item of information to what we already believe? Consider the following parable: “I go to a lecture about wildlife in Greenland which was supposed to be delivered by an expert in the field…Read more
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8Four brides for twelve brothers: how to Dutch book a group of fully rational playersIn Toni Rønnow-Rasmussen, Björn Petersson, Jonas Josefsson & Dan Egonsson (eds.), Hommage à Wlodek; 60 Philosophical Papers Dedicated to Wlodek Rabinowicz - published as web resource only, . 2006.Wlodek Rabinowicz suggested in an e-mail conversation to me that one might be able to use a particular Hats Puzzle to make a Dutch Book against a group of individually rational persons. I present a fanciful story here that has the same structure as Rabinowicz’s Dutch Book.
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13Measuring the Impact of PhilosophyHouse of Commons - Select Committee - Science and Technology. 2009.
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433Behavioural public policies and charitable givingBehavioural Public Policy 2 (2): 168-173. 2018.Some of the challenges in Sanders et al. (this issue) can be aptly illustrated by means of charity nudges, that is, nudges designed to increase charitable donations. These nudges raise many ethical questions. First, Oxfam’s triptychs with suggested donations are designed to increase giving. If successful, do our actions match ex ante or ex post preferences? Does this make a difference to the autonomy of the donor? Second, the Behavioural Insights Team conducted experiments using social networks …Read more
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194Interview: Epistemology: 5 QuestionsIn Vincent F. Hendricks & Duncan Pritchard (eds.), Epistemology: 5 Questions, Automatic Press. pp. 47-61. 2008.Interview
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25A Power Measure Analysis of Amendment 36 in ColoradoPublic Choice 134. 2008.Colorado’s Amendment 36 proposed to switch Colorado’s representation in the Electoral College from winner-takes-all to proportionality. We evaluate unilateral and uniform switches to proportionality both from Colorado’s perspective and from an impartial perspective on the basis of a priori and a posteriori voting power measures. The present system is to be preferred to a unilateral switch from any perspective on any measure. A uniform switch is to be preferred to the present system from Colorado…Read more
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8209The Ethics of NudgeIn Mats J. Hansson & Till Grüne-Yanoff (eds.), Preference Change: Approaches from Philosophy, Economics and Psychology., Springer, Theory and Decision Library a. pp. 207-20. 2008.In their recently published book Nudge (2008) Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein (T&S) defend a position labelled as ‘libertarian paternalism’. Their thinking appeals to both the right and the left of the political spectrum, as evidenced by the bedfellows they keep on either side of the Atlantic. In the US, they have advised Barack Obama, while, in the UK, they were welcomed with open arms by the David Cameron's camp (Chakrabortty 2008). I will consider the following questions. What is Nudge…Read more
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95An the Church agree to condom use by HIV-discordant couplesJournal of Medical Ethics 35 (12): 743-6. 2009.Does the position of the Roman Catholic Church on contraception also imply that the usage of condoms by HIV-discordant couples is illicit? A standard argument is to appeal to the doctrine of double effect to condone such usage, but this meets with the objection that there exists an alternative action that brings about the good effect—namely, abstinence. I argue against this objection, because an HIV-discordant couple does not bring about any bad outcome through condom usage—there is no disrespec…Read more
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179‘Interview’, Probability and Statistics: 5 QuestionsIn Vincent Hendricks & Alan Hajek (eds.), Probability and Statistics: 5 Questions, Automatic Press. pp. 13-28. 2010.Interview
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46Does it Matter whether a Miracle-Like Event Happens to Oneself rather than to Someone Else?In Jake Chandler & Victoria S. Harrison (eds.), Probability in the Philosophy of Religion, Oxford University Press. pp. 64-75. 2012.Let a miracle-like event be an event that is seemingly indicative of the existence of an all-good, all-knowing and all-powerful being, and yet might occur in a naturalistic world, though this would be very improbable. Suppose that a third-person report is equally as reliable as a first-person experience of such a miracle-like event — which avoids Hume’s objection to the evidential value of reports of miracles. The question addressed in this chapter is: Is it the case that, under the assumption o…Read more
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213Real NudgeEuropean Journal of Risk Regulation 3 (1): 43-6. 2012.The novelty in Adam Burgess’ paper is that he assesses nudge policies in the context of the shift in the UK government’s approach to risk from the nannying policies of Labour to the nudge policies of the Conservatives. There is a wealth of ideas in this paper. I find it useful to disentangle some of these ideas focusing on the following two questions: 1. In what respects do Labour’s nannying policies and the Conservatives’ nudge policies differ? 2. What is problematic about Labour’s nannyi…Read more
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24Measuring common standards and equal responsibility sharing in EU asylum outcome dataEuropean Union Politics 13 (1): 70-93. 2012.We construct novel measures to assess (i) the extent to which European Union member states are using common standards in recognizing asylum seekers and (ii) the extent to which the responsibilities for asylum applications, acceptances and refugee populations are equally shared among the member states, taking into account population size, gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP expressed in purchasing power parity (GDP-PPP). We track the progression of these measures since the implementation of the …Read more
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26A Lockean Defence of Grandfathering Emission RightsIn Denis G. Arnold (ed.), The Ethics of Global Climate Change, Cambridge University Press. pp. 124-44. 2010.A core issue in the debate over what constitutes a fair response to climate change is the appropriate allocation of emission rights between the developed and the developing world. Various parties have defended equal emission rights per capita on grounds of equity. The atmosphere belongs to us all and everyone should be allocated an equal share. Others have defended higher emission rights per capita for developing countries on grounds of historical accountability. Developed countries are largely …Read more
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244Henry James, Paardenrennen, en Relatieve Deprivatie--Rational Choice Theory aan het WerkIn J. Verhoeven (ed.), Social Theory, Acco. 1987.I illustrate the use of decision-theory and game-theory in the social sciences by means of examples from Gauthier, Tversky and Kahneman, and Bouldon.
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168The puzzle of the hatsSynthese 172 (1): 57-78. 2010.The Puzzle of the Hats is a betting arrangement which seems to show that a Dutch book can be made against a group of rational players with common priors who act in the common interest and have full trust in the other players’ rationality. But we show that appearances are misleading—no such Dutch book can be made. There are four morals. First, what can be learned from the puzzle is that there is a class of situations in which credences and betting rates diverge. Second, there is an analogy betwee…Read more
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265Commentary: Why Couldn't I Be Nudged to Dislike a Big MacJournal of Medical Ethics 39 (8): 495-6. 2013.In this commentary on Yashar Saghai's article "Salvaging the Concept of Nudge" (JME 2013) I discuss his distinction between a 'prod' (which is 'substantially controlling') and a 'nudge' (which is ‘substantially non-controlling’).
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28BLOG: Why the Refugee Quota System is Unfair on Poorer Eastern and Southern EU StatesLSE European Politics and Policy (EUROPP) Blog. 2015.EU states agreed on 23 September to implement a refugee quota system which will distribute 120,000 refugees across the EU, despite four member states – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia – voting against the proposal. Luc Bovens and Anna Bartsch write that regardless of the wider debate over whether a quota system is justified or not, it is vital that the ‘distribution key’ determining how many refugees are assigned to each state is fair. They argue that the distribution key propo…Read more
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38De verantwoordelijkheid van de overheid ten aanzien van gedragssturende beleidsinstrumenten voor verduurzamingDuurzame Gedragspatronen. Essays. Ethische Aspecten van Gedragsbeinvloeding Door de Overheid Voor Verduurzaming van de Samenleving. 2013.I discuss ethical aspects of behavioural policies in domestic energy usage, recycling, food waste and transportation.
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46Contrary to the claims of German politicians, Germany is not taking on more than its fair share of refugeesLSE European Politics and Policy (EUROPP) Blog. 2014.The extent to which EU countries take on their ‘fair share’ of asylum seekers is a contentious issue. Luc Bovens and Jane von Rabenau write on concern within Germany that the country is taking on a higher burden than other EU states. They argue that when compared on a per capita basis with similar EU countries, Germany performs relatively poorly in terms of acceptances for new refugees. Where Germany performs better is with respect to the size of the existing refugee population within the countr…Read more
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28Refugee Quotas across the EU: A More Reasonable Distribution Key for Refugee QuotasVoxEurop Blog. 2016.The European Commission’s distribution key for refugees across the EU is wanting in many respects. Two LSE researchers defend an alternative key based on pragmatic and realistic criteria. The outcome is sometimes surprising.
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12BLOG: The Last Hope Part 3: AttitudesLse Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method. 2017.How do you hope to be thought of after you die? In his final post in this series, Luc Bovens looks at attitudes towards the dead.
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622The Ethics of Making Risky Decisions for OthersIn Mark D. White (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics, Oxford University Press. pp. 446-473. 2019.Utilitarianism, it has been said, is not sensitive to the distribution of welfare. In making risky decisions for others there are multiple sensitivities at work. I present examples of risky decision-making involving drug allocations, charitable giving, breast-cancer screening and C-sections. In each of these examples there is a different sensitivity at work that pulls away from the utilitarian prescription. Instances of saving fewer people at a greater risk to many is more complex because there …Read more
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29BLOG: The Last Hope Part 2: Dying Well and a World Without MeLse Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method Blog. 2017.In the second part of this series, Luc Bovens looks at a good death and a future without oneself.
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51BLOG: The Last Hope Part 1: A Worthwhile Life.LSE Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method Blog. 2017.In the first in this three-part series, Luc Bovens looks at death, immortality and the worthwhile life.
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474Selection under Uncertainty: Affirmative Action at Shortlisting StageMind 125 (498): 421-437. 2016.Choice often proceeds in two stages: We construct a shortlist on the basis of limited and uncertain information about the options and then reduce this uncertainty by examining the shortlist in greater detail. The goal is to do well when making a final choice from the option set. I argue that we cannot realise this goal by constructing a ranking over the options at shortlisting stage which determines of each option whether it is more or less worthy of being included in a shortlist. This is releva…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Economics |
Moral Psychology |
Formal Epistemology |
Epistemic Paradoxes |