We examine the possibility of justifying the principle of maximum relative entropy (MRE) considered as an updating rule by looking at the value of learning theorem established in classical decision theory. This theorem captures an intuitive requirement for learning: learning should lead to new degrees of belief that are expected to be helpful and never harmful in making decisions. We call this ...

Indoctrination is an ongoing concern in education, especially debates about moral education. One approach to this issue come up with a rational procedure that can robustly justify potential items of education content. I call the ‘rationalistic justification project’. Michael Hand’s recent book, A Theory Moral Education, representative approach. My essay has three parts. First, show justificator...

In this paper, I argue that it is quite useful, both theoretically and empirically, to adopt a sociocultural approach to the study of moral development. This entails viewing ‘moral functioning’ as a form of mediated action, and moral development as the process by which persons gradually appropriate a variety of ‘moral mediational means’. Mediated action entails two central elements: an ‘agent’,...

The New Evil Demon Problem presents a serious challenge to externalist theories of epistemic justification. In recent years, externalists have developed number strategies for responding the problem. A popular line response involves distinguishing between belief’s being epistemically justified and subject’s blameless holding it. apparently problematic intuitions elicits, proponents this claim, t...

On most accounts, beliefs are supposed to fit the world rather than change it. But believing can have social consequences, since the beliefs we form underwrite our actions and impact our character. Because our beliefs affect how we live our lives and how we treat other people, it is surprising how little attention is usually given to the moral status of believing apart from its epistemic justif...

Seroprevalence monitoring of HIV in pregnant women by anonymized unlinked testing has been widely adopted in the UK and other countries. The scientific rationale is to eliminate participation and selection bias. The ethical justification is that the public good outweighs any harm to individuals. The assumption has been that individuals have had their autonomy respected by the offer of informed ...

"Ethics" is used as a label for a new kind of expertise in the field of science and technology. At the same time, it is not clear what ethical expertise consists in and what its political status in modern democracies can be. Starting from the "participatory turn" in recent social research and policy, we will argue that bioethical reasoning has to include public views of and attitudes towards bi...

Over the past several years those who are opposed to some of the policies of the Israeli government, or even to the existence of the State, have proposed an academic boycott of Israel as one of the weapons in their campaign. In this article I want to consider whether the use of this weapon can be justified. In all moral discourse questions about justification have to be universalisable, so to d...