The workshop aims to discuss the prospects and limitations of John Stuart Mill’s ethical naturalism. We will examine how one can achieve a better understanding of the intricacies of Mill’s attempt to justify morality, especially in the light of new research findings. In addition the workshop will highlight how an improved understanding of Mill’s practical philosophy provides insights for the contemporary discussion in metaethics, moral philosophy and political theory. Furthermore, discussing Mill’s practical philosophy may also be a contribution to gaining insights into the burdens of justification of ethical naturalism in general.

Organisers:

• Philipp Schink (Frankfurt University)
• Michael Schefczyk
  (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Location:

• Room B

This workshop discusses new contributions on prioritarianism. Prioritarianism is an important position in discussions about distributive justice, consequentialist axiologies, and theories of beneficence. Prioritarianism can be understood as the position that an increment in an individual’s well-being matters more the worse off the individual is in absolute terms. 

Prioritarianism has been favoured over utilitarianism because the latter simply requires the maximization of total well-being and does sanction equality beyond the ramification of such maximization. Prioritarianism, in contrast, tends to favour more equal distributions of well-being. Prioritarianism has also been preferred to egalitarianism because egalitarianism, unlike prioritarianism, holds that equality is per se desirable and thus invites the so-called Levelling-Down Objection. This Objection takes offence at egalitarianism’s implication that a situation can be improved (in one respect) by making the better-off as badly off as the worse-off.

However, prioritarianism has been faced with objections of its own. Moreover, it is doubtful if the supposed advantages of prioritarianism stand up to scrutiny. Finally, there are debates over how best to understand/formulate prioritarianism, about its rationales, and about what prioritarianism implies in specific contexts. The workshop seeks to shed light on these issues.

Organisers:

• Vuko Andrić (Bayreuth University)
  
• Annette Dufner (Bonn University)
  
• Rudolf Schüßler (Bayreuth University)

Location:

• Room A

The aim of the workshop is to explore Derek Parfit’s wide-ranging, original and inspiring contributions to philosophy (moral theory, metaethics, the foundations of normativity and rationality, population ethics, collective action problems, personal identity) and to discuss contemporary issues emanating from his writings.

Speakers

• Roger Crisp (University of Oxford)
• Julia Driver
  (Washington University in St.Louis)
• Matthias Hoesch (WWU Münster)
• Brad Hooker (University of Reading)
• Susanne Mantel (Saarbrücken University)
• Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek (University of Łódź)
• Melinda Roberts (New Jersey)

Organiser:

• Christian Seidel
  (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Location:

• Room C