Derek Parfit was "thought by many to be the most original moral philosopher in the English-speaking world" (The New Yorker). This conference will bring together many of his friends, students, and colleagues working on Parfitian topics, in order to honor his memory and make progress on those questions he believed matter most. The conference will be held at the University of Oxford, at which Parfit spent his entire academic career. It is supported by the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford and by All Souls College and Corpus Christi College. Speakers will include Elizabeth Ashford, Ralf Bader, Simon Beard, John Broome, Tim Campbell, Ruth Chang, Roger Crisp, Jimmy Goodrich, Nils Holtug, Frances Kamm, Rahul Kumar, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, William MacAskill, Andreas Mogensen, Michael Otsuka, Ingmar Persson,Theron Pummer, Wlodek Rabinowicz, Janet Radcliffe-Richards, Melinda Roberts, Julian Savulescu, Teru Thomas, and Patrick Tomlin. Jeff McMahan, White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford and an organizer of the conference, will deliver opening remarks.

The conference will be held at the Gulbenkian Lecture Theatre in the St Cross Building on St Cross Road. It is free and open to all, but advance registration is required. We highly recommend registering as early as possible, since space may be limited.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE*

In order to avoid disruption and delay, we strongly encourage attendees to be in their seats by the time of each talk, and to avoid leaving or entering the auditorium during a talk unless necessary. This is especially important given the very large number of attendees we expect. Attendees should not feel obligated, however, to attend every talk.

*The schedule is liable to change, so please check this page periodically for possible updates.

Friday, 18 May 2018

9:00 - 9:10: Jeff McMahan (Oxford) - Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:10 - 9:55: Theron Pummer (St Andrews) - "Sorites on What Matters"

9:55 - 10:40: Will MacAskill (Oxford) - "Moral Option Value"

10:40 - 10:55: Break

10:55 - 11:40: Liz Ashford (St Andrews) - "Patterned Values and Shared Duties"

11:40 - 12:25: Teru Thomas (Oxford) - "On Evaluative Imprecision"

12:25 - 13:15: Lunch

13:15 - 14:15: Timothy Campbell (Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm) - "Personal Identity and Impersonal Ethics"

14:15 - 14:30: Break

14:30 - 15:30: Melinda Roberts (The College of New Jersey) - "The Better Chance Puzzle and the Value of Existence"

15:30 - 15:45: Break

15:45 - 16:45: Patrick Tomlin (Warwick) - "The Impure Non-Identity Problem"

16:45 - 17:00: Break

17:00 - 18:00: Wlodek Rabinowicz (Lund) - "Can Parfit's Appeal to Incommensurabilities Block the Continuum Argument for the Repugnant Conclusion?"

Saturday, 19 May 2018

9:00 - 9:45: Ingmar Persson (Gothenburg) - "Parfit's Reorientation: From Revisionism to Conciliationism"

9:45 - 10:30: Nils Holtug (Copenhagen) – “Prioritarianism: Ex Ante, Ex Post, or Factualist Criterion of Rightness?”

10:30 - 10:45: Break

10:45 - 11:30: Ruth Chang (Rutgers) - "Continua, Covering Considerations, and the Repugnant Conclusion"

11:30 - 12:15: Jimmy Goodrich (Rutgers) - "A Theory of Axiological Imprecision"

12:15 - 13:15: Lunch

13:15 - 14:15: Andreas Mogensen (Oxford) - "Against Large Number Skepticism"

14:15 - 14:30: Break

14:30 - 15:30: Roger Crisp (Oxford) - "Parfit on Love and Partiality"

15:30 - 15:45: Break

15:45 - 16:45: Frances Kamm (Harvard) - "Parfit on the Irrelevance of Deontological Distinctions"

16:45 - 17:00: Break

17:00 - 18:00: John Broome (Oxford) - "Reasons First"

Sunday, 20 May 2018

9:00 - 9:45: Rahul Kumar (Queens) - "Saving Lives and Statistical Deaths"

9:45 - 10:30: Simon Beard (Cambridge) - "Quality of Life and the Repugnant Conclusion"

10:30 - 10:45: Break

10:45 - 11:30 - Michael Otsuka (LSE) - "Is Parfit's Account of Goodness Refuted by the Fairness and Value of Merely Epistemic Chances?"

11:30 - 12:15: Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen (Aarhus) - "Telic and Deontic Relational Egalitarianism"

12:15 - 13:15: Lunch

13:15 - 14:15: Ralf Bader (Oxford) - "The Asymmetry"

14:15 - 14:30: Break

14:30 - 15:30: Julian Savulescu (Oxford) - "Solving the Non-Identity Problem"

15:30 - 15:45: Break

15:45 - 16:15: Janet Radcliffe-Richards (Oxford) - "Recollections of Derek"

16:15 - 16:25: Jeff McMahan (Oxford) - Closing Remarks