Collective Contributions

Harvard FAS

Some of the most vexing puzzles in philosophy involve several elements working together in order to collectively contribute toward some end, or in order to jointly make up some whole. How do reasons play off each other in the determination of what one all things considered ought to do (or believe, or feel)? Can we sometimes aggregate values without aggregation overrunning our ethical theory and turning it into a version of consequentialism? How do the specific features of an artwork…