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89IV. The production of children as a problem of utilitarian ethicsInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 12 (1-4): 445-447. 1969.It is shown that the basic postulate of utilitarianism does not work when we must decide whether a person should be brought into existence. Utilitarianism must be supplemented by further axioms. Those proposed lead to the consequence that as far as the potential child's utility is concerned, it is morally preferable not to produce children at all. This consequence is accepted. It is still recommended when parents? utility is taken into account
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94Logical probability, mathematical statistics, and the problem of inductionSynthese 20 (1). 1969.In this paper I want to discuss some basic problems of inductive logic, i.e. of the attempt to solve the problem of induction by means of a calculus of logical probability. I shall try to throw some light upon these problems by contrasting inductive logic, based on logical probability, and working with undefined samples of observations, with mathematical statistics, based on statistical probability, and working with representative random samples
Areas of Specialization
Meta-Ethics |
Philosophy of Probability |
General Philosophy of Science |