The Good, the Bad and the Trivial

Chrisoula Andreou,
Department of Philosophy, University of Utah

Monday, Sept. 16, 4-6pm.
Larkin 200

Abstract: Dreadful and dreaded outcomes are sometimes brought about via the accumulation of individually trivial effects. Think about inching toward terrible health or toward an environmental disaster. In some such cases, the outcome comes about through a sequence of actions, each of which is trivial in its impact. Cases of this sort are not only practically challenging, but theoretically challenging as well. They raise puzzling questions about the assessment of conduct. Sometimes each action in an extended sequence of moves can be correctly assessed as permissible (relative to a certain set of concerns) even though the sequence foreseeably leads to an outcome that is unacceptable (relative to the same set of concerns) and even though acceptable outcomes are available.This seems paradoxical. I argue that this (apparent) puzzle glosses over complications associated with action individuation and units of agency. Reflection on these complications makes it clear that in the paradoxical cases there is an accurate way of seeing what is being done at various particular moments that clearly brings out the tight connection between the current action and the non-trivial damage that is to be expected.