•  77
    Many-valued logic and sequence arguments in value theory
    Synthese 199 (3-4): 10793-10825. 2021.
    Some find it plausible that a sufficiently long duration of torture is worse than any duration of mild headaches. Similarly, it has been claimed that a million humans living great lives is better than any number of worm-like creatures feeling a few seconds of pleasure each. Some have related bad things to good things along the same lines. For example, one may hold that a future in which a sufficient number of beings experience a lifetime of torture is bad, regardless of what else that future con…Read more
  •  646
    The world destruction argument
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy (10). 2019.
    The most common argument against negative utilitarianism is the world destruction argument, according to which negative utilitarianism implies that if someone could kill everyone or destroy the world, it would be her duty to do so. Those making the argument often endorse some other form of consequentialism, usually traditional utilitarianism. It has been assumed that negative utilitarianism is less plausible than such other theories partly because of the world destruction argument. So, it is tho…Read more
  •  64
    A Virtue of Precaution Regarding the Moral Status of Animals with Uncertain Sentience
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 30 (2): 213-224. 2017.
    We address the moral importance of fish, invertebrates such as crustaceans, snails and insects, and other animals about which there is qualified scientific uncertainty about their sentience. We argue that, on a sentientist basis, one can at least say that how such animals fare make ethically significant claims on our character. It is a requirement of a morally decent (or virtuous) person that she at least pays attention to and is cautious regarding the possibly morally relevant aspects of such a…Read more