Please see below for details of a workshop on ‘War and Knowledge’ to be
held at the University of Reading from 2.00-6.15 on Wednesday 4 June 2014.
To reserve a place, please email j.a.scheppers@rdg.ac.uk.
Topics covered will include
The ethics of personal assumption of risk and of its creation for others
Uncertainty about the consequences of action/inaction Uncertainty about
judgements of (a) facts and (b) the moral implications of those facts The
epistemic privileges (if any) to be attributed to their rulers by (a)
soldiers (b) ordinary citizens The relationship between some (minimalist)
views of the moral and/or practical knowledge to be attributed to states
and a thoroughgoing anarchist position
Programme
1.15 – 2.00 Sandwich lunch
2.00 -3.15 Session One: General Considerations
Alan Cromartie (Reading), ‘When, for whom, and why did claims to privileged
knowledge become significant?’
Tony Coady (Melbourne). ‘Conscience and War: the epistemic authority of the
democratic state and its conscientious rejection in times of war.’
3.15-3.45 Tea and Coffee
3.45 – 5.30 Session Two: Particular Problems
Patrick Tomlin (Reading), ‘Moral uncertainty and the decision to go to war.’
Helen Frowe (Kent), ‘Proportionality and a reasonable prospect of success.’
Victor Tadros (Warwick), ‘The uncertainties of war.’
5.30 – 5.45 Break
5.45 – 6.45 Round table with drinks
6.15 Dinner
Dinner is optional: free for speakers, subsidised for others.