We have the pleasure to invite you to another research seminar. This week Jay Zameska, new INCET member is going to give a talk: "Can contractualists complain about risk?”. The seminar will take place on Thursday 5th of October at 5:30 p.m. in the room 25 on Grodzka Street and via MS Teams.

Abstract

In recent years, T.M. Scanlon's contractualism has gained popularity as a framework for addressing risk and uncertainty in public health ethics. However, questions persist regarding its compatibility with interpretations of risk, uncertainty, and probability. In this talk I argue that contractualism's "individualist restriction," which prohibits group-based complaints, conflicts with the frequentist interpretation of probability. As a result, risk-based complaints are unacceptable in contractualist moral reasoning. In practical terms, this issue may make it difficult for contractualism to justify certain health-related policies about risk that are intuitively correct (e.g. prioritization on health-related risks). This issue raises significant challenges for the viability of contractualism as a non-consequentialist moral theory, particularly in areas related to risk, medicine, and public health. In the talk, I will provide a more comprehensive explanation of this problem and briefly outline three potential resolutions.

 

Link to the MS Teams meeting