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1Compromises and FairnessEtikk I Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics 1 21-31. 2024._Many philosophers have pointed out that a compromise that is fair in one sense can be unfair in another. In this paper, I will briefly introduce different ways in which compromises can be “fair” and then analyze them. In particular, I compare the importance of what I call (a) split-the-difference fairness and (b) end-state fairness. I will defend split-the-difference fairness against an important objection—that a person’s false belief about her fair share does not change what her fair share act…Read more
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19Climate Change Conspiracy TheoriesIn Pellegrino Gianfranco & Marcello Di Paola (eds.), Handbook of Philosophy of Climate Change, Springer Nature. pp. 1161-1177. 2023.Climate change conspiracy theories raise many questions. Some of the questions are philosophical in nature. They include issues such as how to define “conspiracy theory” (a conceptual question), what the ethical status of conspiracy theorizing is (a moral question), and how decision-makers should deal with climate change conspiracy theories (a practical question). One way to define “climate change conspiracy theory” is to say that they are explanations that (1) refer to conspiracies, (2) are not…Read more
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125The Problem of the Second Best: Conceptual Issues: Juha RäikkäUtilitas 12 (2): 204-218. 2000.In this article I shall undertake a preliminary exploration of the notion of second best. I shall follow a three-step strategy. First, I shall introduce some applications of the theorem of the second best in different fields of philosophy and social sciences. Secondly, I shall make several conceptual distinctions related to the theorem. I aim to show that there are certain theoretical results that are similar but not identical to the theorem of the second best, and that the notion of second best…Read more
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40Moderate Conventionalism and Cultural AppropriationEtikk I Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics 1 81-88. 2019.Cultural appropriation, also called cultural borrowing, has been the topic of much discussion in recent years. Roughly speaking, cultural appropriation happens when someone outside of a cultural or ethnic group takes or uses some object that is characteristic or in some way important to the group without the group’s permission. Individuals who find cultural appropriation unproblematic have often argued that if we express moral criticism of the use of traditional Sami outfits by non-Sami, then we…Read more
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2Rationality in Global and Local Contexts – Proceedings of the Research Project (edited book)University of Turku. 2007.
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11On the Nontechnical Limits of Brain ImagingCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 29 (4): 527-541. 2020.Since the advent of neuroimaging technologies, their limits and possibilities have captivated scientists and philosophers. Thus far, the debate has largely concerned technical limits of our capacity to “read minds.” This paper extends the discussion concerning the limitations of neuroimaging to issues that are not dependent on technical issues or on our understanding of the complexity of brain activities. The author argues that there is a serious chance that brain scanning cannot replace usual i…Read more
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43Black magic and respecting persons—Some perplexitiesRatio 33 (3): 173-183. 2020.Black magic (henceforth BM) is acting in an attempt to harm human beings through supernatural means. Examples include the employment of spells, the use of special curses, the burning of objects related to the purported victim, and the use of pins with voodoo dolls. For the sake of simplicity, we shall focus on attempts to kill through BM. The moral attitude towards BM has not been, as far as we know, significantly discussed in contemporary analytic philosophy. Yet the topic brings up interesting…Read more
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23Regret and ObligationThe Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 12 24-29. 1998.In Albert Camus' 1950 play Just Assassins, terrorists are at work in nineteenth-century Russia. They kill people, and they all believe that there is a superior moral reason for doing so. But they also know that killing is wrong. In their own view, they are innocent criminals; innocent, because their action is justified, but criminals, because they kill. So tacitly they conclude that they deserve punishment that will remove the regret from their shoulders. Their execution, by the same despotic au…Read more
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14The Social Concept of DiseaseTheoretical Medicine: An International Journal for the Philosophy and Methodology of Medical Research and Practice 17 (4): 353-361. 1996.In the discussion of such social questions as "how should alcoholics be treated by society?" and "what kind of people are responsible in the face of the law?", is "disease" a value-free or value-laden notion, a natural or a normative one? It seems, for example, that by the utterance 'alcoholism should be classified as a disease' we mean something like the following: the condition called alcoholism is similar in morally relevant respects to conditions that we uncontroversially label diseases and,…Read more
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43Distribution and ignoranceSynthese 198 (3): 2641-2657. 2019.According to the so-called presumption of equality, a person who does not know whether there is an acceptable reason for differential treatment should just presume the similarity of the cases and treat them equally. If we assume that the presumption of equality is an acceptable moral principle, at least when the allocation cannot be postponed and an equal distribution of goods is possible, then an important question arises: when exactly does the allocator have sufficient reasons for differential…Read more
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34On the presumption of equalityCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 22 (7): 809-822. 2019.
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16When a Person Feels that She Is Guilty and Believes that She Is Not GuiltyThe Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 9 149-152. 2006.Guilt feelings are an important part of our emotional life that is relevant to moral philosophy, and guilt feelings raise many theoretically interesting questions. One such question is the problem of how it is possible that sometimes people seem to feel guilty because of an act they have committed even if they believe that the act is not wrong and that it does not have any moral costs. A person raised in a religious family may have been taught that going to the theater is wrong, and even if she …Read more
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8Adaptive Preferences and Self-DeceptionIn Juha Räikkä & Jukka Varelius (eds.), Adaptation and Autonomy: Adaptive Preferences in Enhancing and Ending Life, Springer. pp. 149. 2013.
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16On Disassociating Oneself from Collective ResponsiblitySocial Theory and Practice 23 (1): 93-108. 1997.
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29Genes and Morality: New EssaysRodopi. 1999.Most public discussion has focused on those effects of genetic research that are considered in some way unwanted or unpleasant. For example, there has been much debate concerning the risks and the ethical appropriateness of genetic screening, gene therapy, and agricultural applications based on genetic techniques. It often claimed that genetic research may cause new problems such as genetic discrimination, stigmatization, environmental risks, or mistreatment of animals. Genes and Morality: New E…Read more
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33Privacy and Self-PresentationRes Publica 23 (2): 213-226. 2017.It has often been argued that one of the reasons why we should value privacy is that it enables self-presentation and impression management. According to this approach, it is valuable to be able to govern the impression one gives, as the capacity to govern impressions is an instrument by which people take care of their various social relationships. In this paper I will take a closer look at that approach on privacy, with specific reference to the alleged threats to privacy created by brain imagi…Read more
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15Are there Alternative Methods in Ethics?Grazer Philosophische Studien 52 (1): 173-189. 1996.Do all methods of moral justification resemble the method of reflective equilibrium in presupposing that moral judgment's being justified depends at least in part on its being appropriately related to our actual substantial moral views? Can a moral judgment be justified without such a presupposition? I shall distinguish three versions of the no-option argument According to any version of the no-option argument, there is certain fact which characterizes moral theories, and that fact implies that …Read more
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113The Feasibility Condition in Political TheoryJournal of Political Philosophy 6 (1): 27-40. 1998.
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73When a Person Feels that She Is Guilty and Believes that She Is Not GuiltyThe Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 9 149-152. 2006.Guilt feelings are an important part of our emotional life that is relevant to moral philosophy, and guilt feelings raise many theoretically interesting questions. One such question is the problem of how it is possible that sometimes people seem to feel guilty because of an act they have committed even if they believe that the act is not wrong and that it does not have any moral costs. A person raised in a religious family may have been taught that going to the theater is wrong, and even if she …Read more
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80On irrational guiltEthical Theory and Moral Practice 7 (5). 2005.A person raised in a religious family may have been taught that going to the theater is not allowed, and even if he has rejected this taboo years ago, he still feels guilty when attending theater. These kinds of cases may not be rare, but they are strange. Indeed, one may wonder how they are even possible. This is why an explanation is needed, and in my paper I aim to give such an explanation. In particular, I will first provide a brief review of the explanations of irrational guilt that are com…Read more
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17Eric Racine , Pragmatic Neuroethics: Improving Treatment and Understanding of the Mind-Brain . Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 31 (3): 228-231. 2011.
Areas of Interest
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |