Monday, September 28, 2009

Hedonism FTW

I've just uploaded a new paper (and submitted it to a journal): The Epistemic Argument for Universal Hedonism. This one is pretty action-packed. First I give an account of moral judgment. Then I present an argument that pushes us towards global skepticism about morality. Then I save us from global moral skepticism by arguing that despite the big skeptical argument, we can know about the goodness of pleasure through phenomenal introspection. Then there's a part at the end where I clean up some stuff about how to go from the epistemic stuff to the metaphysical and moral conclusions. This is supposed to be the first and biggest step in the big argument for hedonic utilitarianism.

I gave this paper at a bunch of places this summer -- Arizona, Tennessee, Illinois State, and King's College London -- and people gave me great feedback everywhere. Thanks, folks!

1 comment:

Amod Lele said...

Hey Neil - I read your paper and enjoyed it. It provoked my thinking enough that I wrote an entry about it on my blog:

http://loveofallwisdom.com/2009/10/is-pleasure-the-only-intrinsic-good/

I'd love to hear your thoughts.