WoW - Workshop on Welfare 2022

June 23rd to 24th, 2022
Saarland University, Germany

Registration

Since there is only a limited number of possible participants we ask you to register by sending an email to  workshoponwelfare(at)gmail.com until June 12 if you would like to attend. 

Information on the workshop

Considerations about welfare, the value of welfare and its distribution within populations are central to moral philosophy. They are of particular concern for all philosophers who take welfare to be (at least) one source for normative reasons. And, regardless of any deontic implications, welfare axiology also provides an array of fascinating philosophical questions.

  • What is personal goodness and what constitutes welfare?
  • Is well-being purely subjective and should we accept a resonance constraint on welfare?
  • Can we circumvent problems like ones raised by the experience machine or desires with post-mortal content?
  • What accounts of pleasure, desire or objective goods are compatible with classical theories of welfare?
  • How does the welfare of persons relate to value assessments of populations?
  • Does the aggregation of individual welfare require a shift to an impersonal point of view?
  • Can we extend value assessments to variable populations?
  • How can we solve problems of variable population comparisons such as the Non-Identity Problem and the Repugnant Conclusion?
 

This workshop provides a forum for the discussion of those and related questions. It aims at rallying scholars of philosophy to expand our understanding in these issues, and we hope to promote the philosophical engagement with welfare axiology. May welfare fare well in Germany, Europe and beyond.

 

Keynote speakers are

  • Guy Fletcher (University of Edinburgh)
  • Nils Holtug (University of Copenhagen)

Further Speakers

  • Vuko Andrić (Bayreuth University/Institute for Futures Studies Stockholm) & Anders Herlitz (Institute for Futures Studies Stockholm)
  • James Brown (University of Sheffield) 
  • Shu Ishida (Osaka University) 
  • Jonas Harney (Saarland University) 
  • Kacper Kowalczyk (University College London) 
  • Ana Gavran Miloš (University of Rijeka) 
  • Joseph Van Weelden (Ahmedabad University) 
  • Peter Zuk (Harvard University)  

Schedule

Thursday, June 23

  • 09:00 – 09:30 Welcome and Introduction
  • 09:30 – 10:15 Jonas Harney (Saarland University)
    How Narrow Person-Affecting Considerations Influence the Goodness Of Outcomes
  • 10:45 – 11:30 Kacper Kowalczyk (University College London)
    A New Argument for Fanaticism
  • 12:00 – 12:45 Vuko Andrić (Bayreuth University/Institute for Futures Studies Stockholm) & Anders Herlitz (Institute for Futures Studies Stockholm)
    Prudential Prioritarianism and Intrapersonal Trade-Offs
  • 12:45 – 14:30 Lunch break
  • 14:30 – 15:15 James Brown (University of Sheffield)
    Additive Aggregation and Whole-Life Welfare
  • 15:45 – 17:15 Nils Holtug (University of Copenhagen)
    Prioritarianism, Risk and the Gap Between Prudence and Morality
  • 19:00 Dinner

 

Friday, June 24

  • 09:30 – 10:15 Joseph Van Weelden (Ahmedabad University)
    Putting the Desire Back in Subjectivism
  • 10:45 – 11:30 Shu Ishida (Osaka University)
    Pluralist Welfare-Subjectivism and Procedural Perfectionism
  • 12:00 – 12:45 Ana Gavran Miloš (University of Rijeka)
    Mid-level theories of wellbeing: capabilitarian account
  • 12:45 – 14:30 Lunch break
  • 14:30 – 15:15 Peter Zuk (Harvard University)
    Welfare and Other-Involving Goods
  • 15:45 – 17:15 Guy Fletcher (University of Edinburgh)
    All’s Well that Ends Well?
  • 19:00 Dinner

The abstracts as well as the as schedule can be found here.

Location

The workshop will take place at the Graduate Center (Building C 9.3) at the Campus of Saarland University in Saarbrücken. (View on Maps)

Here, you can find a site map of the campus which indicates the location of the Graduate Center.
Although Saarbrücken is fairly small such that you can walk most distances, the university is located a bit outside of the city. Walking from downtown to the Graduate Center takes at least one hour. You can go there by bus (lines 101, 102, 109, 111). The bus stop “Universität Mensa” is the closest to the Graduate Center. Note, however, that the busses can get quite busy during the day so you better plan with some extra time. Alternatively, you can take a taxi or Uber to get to the campus.

The workshop is organised by Jonas Harney (Saarland University) and Thorsten Helfer (Saarland University), and generously supported by GAP, UdS Internationalisierungsfonds & Professorship for Practical Philosophy.

Der Header ist ein Ausschnitt von Hermann Waibels Bild "Lichtfarbe" von 1987. Wir danken Herrn Waibel für die freundliche Erlaubnis, sein Bild zu nutzen.