Feasibility and Normative Entanglement (with Matthew Lindauer) Feasibility is a central theme in contemporary political philosophy. What we call “normative entanglement” – whereby certain not-obviously-normative judgements turn out to systematically co-vary with our normative judgements – is a central theme in contemporary experimental philosophy. In this paper we aim to connect these hitherto unconnected issues and the very different methods associated with work on them by considering whether our feasibility judgements are subject to normative entanglement and, if so, what follows from it. First, we present the results of three experimental studies that provide evidence that our feasibility judgements are indeed subject to normative entanglement – more precisely, to a special and neglected form of it that we call “normative contamination.” Second, we argue that our experimental results have significant, surprising, and by no means straightforward implications for our understanding of both feasibility and normative entanglement, respectively.
When
Wed May 30, 2018 3am – 4:30am Coordinated Universal Time
