WoW - Workshop on Welfare 2023

July 12th to 13th, 2023
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 July 3 if you would like to attend.

News

On short notice, Ben Bradley (Syracuse University) agreed to speak at the workshop. He replaces Gwen Bradford, who, unfortunately, cannot attend. We hope to invite her some time in the future, though.

Unfortunately, Thorsten Helfer will not be able to speak at the workshop. On the upside, Ana Patricia Melchor Organista (Autonomous Metropolitan University Mexico) will replace him.  For more information see the details on schedule and abstracts below.

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

  • Ben Bradley (Syracuse University)

  • Krister Bykvist (Stockholm University)

Further Speakers

  • Teresa Bruno-Niño (Pennsylvania State University) & Hasko von Kriegstein (Toronto Metropolitan University)

  • Willem van der Deijl (Tilburg University)

  • Adriano Mannino (LMU Munich & UC Berkeley)

  • Jonas Harney (Saarland University)

  • Ana Patricia Melchor Organista (Autonomous Metropolitan University Mexico)

  • Rhys Southan (University of Oxford)

  • Luca Stroppa (University of St. Andrews)

  • Kevin Xia (University of Vienna) & Paul Sonnleitner (TU Vienna)

Schedule

Wednesday, July 12

  • 11:00 – 11:15 Welcome and Introduction
  • 11:15 – 12:00 Jonas Harney (Saarland University)
    The Ground of the Moral Value of Welfare: Personal or Impersonal?
  • 12:30 – 13:15 Adriano Mannino (LMU Munich & UC Berkeley)
    Infinity, Transitivity, & the Measure of Welfare
  • 13:15 – 14:15 Lunch break
  • 14:15 – 15:00 Rhys Southan (University of Oxford)
    Explaining and Defending the Axiological Basis for the No-Difference View
  • 15:30 – 16:15 Kevin Xia (University of Vienna) & Paul Sonnleitner (TU Vienna)
    From Deduction to Rejection: A Novel Approach to Non-Aggregative Theories in Welfarist Axiology
  • 16:45 – 18:15 Krister Bykvist (Stockholm University)
    Transformative experiences and attitude-sensitive wellbeing
  • 19:30 Dinner

Thursday, July 13

  • 10:00 – 10:45 Ana Patricia Melchor Organista (Autonomous Metropolitan University)
    What would an empirically based perfectionist theory of well-being look like?
  • 11:15 – 12:00 Willem van der Deijl (Tilburg University)
    Only sentient beings are welfare subjects
  • 12:30 – 13:15 Luca Stroppa (University of St. Andrews)
    A dilemma for wellbeing pluralists
  • 13:15 – 14:15 Lunch break
  • 14:15 – 15:00 Teresa Bruno-Niño (Pennsylvania State University) & Hasko von Kriegstein (Toronto Metropolitan University)
    Ill-Being as Dissonance
  • 15:30 – 17:00 Ben Bradley (Syracuse University)
    The Sacrificer's Dilemma
  • 19:00 Dinner

The abstracts as well as the 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 (Gesellschaft für Analytische Philosophie), GUS (Gesellschaft für Utilitarismusstudien), and UdS 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.