• Ethics in the Gray Area
    Cambridge University Press. 2023.
    What should morally conscientious agents do if they must choose among options that are somewhat right and somewhat wrong? Should one select an option that is right to the highest degree, or would it perhaps be more rational to choose randomly among all somewhat right options? And how should lawmakers and courts address behaviour that is neither entirely right nor entirely wrong? In this first book-length discussion of the 'gray area' in ethics, Martin Peterson challenges the assumption that righ…Read more
  •  57
    Consequentialism in infinite worlds
    Analysis 80 (2): 240-248. 2020.
    We show that in infinite worlds the following three conditions are incompatible: The spatiotemporal ordering of individuals is morally irrelevant. All else being equal, the act of bringing about a good outcome with a high probability is better than the act of bringing about the same outcome with a low probability. One act is better than another only if there is a nonzero probability that it brings about a better outcome. The impossibility of combining these conditions shows that it is more costl…Read more
  •  11
    Not Knowing a Cat is a Cat: Analyticity and Knowledge Ascriptions
    with Bart Bezooijen and J. Carter
    Review of Philosophy and Psychology 7 (4): 817-834. 2016.
    It is a natural assumption in mainstream epistemological theory that ascriptions of knowledge of a proposition p track strength of epistemic position vis-à-vis p. It is equally natural to assume that the strength of one’s epistemic position is maximally high in cases where p concerns a simple analytic truth. For instance, it seems reasonable to suppose that one’s epistemic position vis-à-vis “a cat is a cat” is harder to improve than one’s position vis-à-vis “a cat is on the mat”, and consequent…Read more
  •  25
    Can we Use Conceptual Spaces to Model Moral Principles?
    with Steven Verheyen
    Review of Philosophy and Psychology 12 (2): 373-395. 2020.
    Can the theory of conceptual spaces developed by Peter Gärdenfors and others be applied to moral issues? Martin Peterson argues that several moral principles can be construed as regions in a shared similarity space, but Kristin Shrader-Frechette and Gert-Jan Lokhorst question Peterson’s claim. They argue that the moral similarity judgments used to construct the space are underspecified and subjective. In this paper, we present new data indicating that moral principles can indeed be construed as …Read more
  •  92
    Erratum to: Book Symposium on Peter Paul Verbeek’s Moralizing Technology: Understanding and Designing the Morality of Things . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011 Content Type Journal Article Category Erratum Pages 1-27 DOI 10.1007/s13347-011-0058-z Authors Evan Selinger, Dept. Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA Don Ihde, Dept. Philosophy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA Ibo van de Poel, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands Mar…Read more
  •  8
    The values that will govern choices among future energy systems are unlikely to be the same as the values we embrace today. This paper discusses principles of rational choice for agents expecting future value shifts. How do we ought to reason if we believe that some values are likely to change in the future? Are future values more, equally, or less important than present ones? To answer this question, I propose and discuss the Expected Center of Gravity Principle, which articulates what I believ…Read more
  •  5
    What Do Technical Functions Supervene On?
    Techné Research in Philosophy and Technology 26 (3): 413-425. 2022.
    According to the dual nature thesis, technical artifacts have a dual nature: they are material objects that have a material base, but also functions that depend on their intentional history, in particular their intended and actual use. In an influential paper, Houkes and Meijers argue that the dual nature thesis does not square well with the seemingly plausible idea that the function of a technological artifact supervenes on its material base. They correctly point out that many versions of the s…Read more
  •  61
    Ethics for engineers
    Oxford University Press. 2019.
    An essential all-in-one introduction, Ethics for Engineers provides in-depth coverage of major ethical theories, professional codes of ethics, and case studies in a single volume. Incorporating numerous practical examples and about 100 review questions, it helps students better understand and address ethical issues that they may face in their future careers. Topics covered include whistle-blowing, the problem of many hands, gifts, bribes, conflicts of interest, engineering and environmental ethi…Read more
  •  31
    Moral Rightness Comes in Degrees
    Journal of the American Philosophical Association 8 (4): 645-664. 2022.
    This article questions the traditional view that moral rightness and wrongness are discrete predicates with sharp boundaries. I contend that moral rightness and wrongness come in degrees: Some acts are somewhat rightandsomewhat wrong. My argument is based on the assumption that meaning tracks use. If an overwhelming majority of competent language users frequently say that some acts are a bit right and a bit wrong, this indicates that rightness and wrongnessaregradable concepts. To support the em…Read more
  •  18
    Animals and Friendship: A Reply to Rowlands
    with Barbro Fröding
    Journal of Animal Ethics 1 (2): 187-189. 2011.
    Can humans be friends with animals? If so, what would the moral implications of such friendship be? In a previous issue of this journal, we argued that humans can indeed be friends with animals and that such friendships are morally valuable. The present article is a comment on Mark Rowlands’s reply to our original article. We argue that our original argument is not undermined by Rowlands’s attack.
  •  81
    Animal Ethics Based on Friendship
    with Barbro Frööding
    Journal of Animal Ethics 1 (1): 58-69. 2011.
    This article discusses some aspects of animal ethics from an Aristotelian virtue ethics point of view. Because the notion of friendship (philia) is central to Aristotle’s ethical theory, the focus of the article is whether humans and animals can be friends. It is argued that new empirical findings in cognitive ethology indicate that animals actually do fulfill the Aristotelian condition for friendship based on mutual advantage. The practical ethical implications of these findings are discussed, …Read more
  •  33
    The Deontic Transfer Principle
    Erkenntnis 86 (5): 1185-1195. 2021.
    The Deontic Transfer Principle states that if it is permissible for a person A to cause another person B harm H then, other things being equal, it is permissible for A to impose a risk of harm H on B. In this article we show that the Deontic Transfer Principle is vulnerable to counterexamples, and that the same is true of a range of closely related principles. We conclude that the deontic status of a risk imposition is not directly inherited from the deontic properties of deterministic acts.
  •  7
    Pure Time Preference: Reply to Johansson and Rosenqvist
    Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 97 (3): 442-445. 2016.
    Johansson and Rosenqvist reject our argument for the rational permissibility of pure time preferences (PTP). Johansson and Rosenqvist's main objection is that where two options, X and Y, have equal intrinsic value, there will be a reason to be indifferent between X and Y, and therefore a reason to not hold a PTP for X or Y. In this reply, we argue that if two options have equal intrinsic value, it does not follow that you have a reason to be indifferent. Rather, the two equally large intrinsic v…Read more
  •  51
    Abortion Is Neither Right Nor Wrong
    Journal of Value Inquiry 56 (2): 219-240. 2022.
  •  39
    The contention of this paper is that the current ethical debate over embryonic stem cell research is polarised to an extent that is not warranted by the underlying ethical conflict. It is argued that the ethical debate can be rendered more nuanced, and less polarised, by introducing non-binary notions of moral rightness and wrongness. According to the view proposed, embryonic stem cell research—and possibly other controversial activities too—can be considered ‘a little bit right and a little bit…Read more
  •  35
    Friendly AI
    with Barbro Fröding
    Ethics and Information Technology 23 (3): 207-214. 2020.
    In this paper we discuss what we believe to be one of the most important features of near-future AIs, namely their capacity to behave in a friendly manner to humans. Our analysis of what it means for an AI to behave in a friendly manner does not presuppose that proper friendships between humans and AI systems could exist. That would require reciprocity, which is beyond the reach of near-future AI systems. Rather, we defend the claim that social AIs should be programmed to behave in a manner that…Read more
  •  105
    The value alignment problem: a geometric approach
    Ethics and Information Technology 21 (1): 19-28. 2019.
    Stuart Russell defines the value alignment problem as follows: How can we build autonomous systems with values that “are aligned with those of the human race”? In this article I outline some distinctions that are useful for understanding the value alignment problem and then propose a solution: I argue that the methods currently applied by computer scientists for embedding moral values in autonomous systems can be improved by representing moral principles as conceptual spaces, i.e. as Voronoi tes…Read more
  • Recension av José Carlos Somozas Idéernas grotta (review)
    Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift 3. 2005.
  •  28
    Reply to Ralf Bader
    Dialectica 68 (4): 625-629. 2014.
  •  33
    Why computer games can be essential for human flourishing
    with Barbro Fröding
    Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society 11 (2): 81-91. 2013.
    PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue that playing computer games for lengthy periods of time, even in a manner that will force the player to forgo certain other activities normally seen as more important, can be an integral part of human flourishing.Design/methodology/approachThe authors' claim is based on a modern reading of Aristotle's Nichomacean Ethics. It should be emphasized that the authors do not argue that computer gaming and other similar online activities are central to all pe…Read more
  •  51
    The Anti‐Nihilist Wager
    Dialectica 72 (4): 597-602. 2018.
  •  47
    Is the Precautionary Principle a Midlevel Principle?
    with Per Sandin
    Ethics, Policy and Environment 22 (1): 34-48. 2019.
    In this article, we defend two claims about the precautionary principle. The first is that there is no ‘core’ precautionary principle that unifies all its different versions. It is more plausible to think of the different versions as being related to each other by way of family resemblances. So although precautionary principle x may have much in common with precautionary principle y, and y with z, there is no set of necessary and sufficient conditions that unify all versions of the principle. Ou…Read more
  •  34
    The Ethics of Technology: Response to Critics
    Science and Engineering Ethics 24 (5): 1645-1652. 2018.
    The Ethics of Technology: A Geometric Analysis of Five Moral Principles proposes five moral principles for analyzing ethical issues related to engineering and technology. The objections raised by several authors to the multidimensional scaling technique used in the book reveal a lack of familiarity with this widely used technique.
  •  46
    Interval values and rational choice
    Economics and Philosophy 1-8. forthcoming.
  •  35
    Does Moral Rightness Come in Degrees?
    The Philosophers' Magazine 74 34-38. 2016.
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    Transformative Decision Rules
    Erkenntnis 58 (1): 71-85. 2003.
    A transformative decision rule transforms a given decision probleminto another by altering the structure of the initial problem,either by changing the framing or by modifying the probability orvalue assignments. Examples of decision rules belonging to thisclass are the principle of insufficient reason, Isaac Levi'scondition of E-admissibility, the de minimis rule, andthe precautionary principle. In this paper some foundationalissues concerning transformative decision rules are investigated,and a…Read more
  •  36
    Introduction: Values and norms in modeling
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 46 1-2. 2014.
  •  24
    New Technologies Should not be Treated as Social Experiments
    Ethics, Policy and Environment 16 (3): 346-348. 2013.
    Van de Poel argues that nuclear power should be treated as an ongoing social experiment that needs to be continuously monitored and evaluated. In his reports (2009; Jacobs, Van de Poel, & Os...