Three Papers in Ethics
The Direct Harm of Testimonial InjusticeWhat kind of wrong is it to prejudicially doubt a person’s credibility or honesty? I will argue that prejudicial incredulity is immediately and unjustly harmful; in particular, I argue that the attitude of incredulity is a type of disesteem, that disesteem is directly harmful, and that prejudicially caused harms are procedurally unjust. Hypocrisy as Selfish Self-ExceptionalismWhat is hypocrisy? Why is it bad? How bad is it? I propose that hypocrisy is selfish self-exceptionalism, which is when a person holds others to a more demanding standard than that to which she holds herself due to a selfish bias. This theory explains what hypocrisy is. I also argue that the intrinsic selfishness of hypocrisy, in the context of committing to normative standards, explains why hypocrisy is bad. The Problem of Self-SacrificeDecisions that are, intuitively, self-sacrificial seem not to be accommodated by unrestricted wellbeing-subjectivism. In response, proponents of wellbeing-subjectivism have proposed various restrictions or reinterpretations of the concept of self-sacrifice. I dispute each of these proposals and propose my own analysis of self-sacrifice, one that is compatible with unrestricted wellbeing-subjectivism after all.