Dylan Balfour

PhD Philosophy

  • Philosophy
  • School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

40 George Square

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 9JX

Background

I'm a PhD student working in normative ethics and decision theory. I'm interested in various questions related to "longtermism" - the thesis that we ought to prioritise the far future of humanity. I also have broader interests in epistemology and philosophy of religion.

 

Publications

'Pascal’s Mugger Strikes Again'. Utilitas 33(1): 118-24. 2021.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S0953820820000357

'Second-Personal Theodicy: Coming to Know Why God Permits Suffering by Coming to Know God Himself'. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 88(3): 287-305. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-020-09763-x

Book Reviews

'Review of Hilary Greaves & Theron Pummer (eds.) Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues (Oxford: OUP, 2019)'. Journal of Moral Philosophy 18(1): 99-102. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1163/17455243-18010001

Talks

'The Ubiquity of Muggings: Expected Utility and the Future of Humanity'. Understanding Value IX, University of Sheffield, December 2020.

'The Ubiquity of Muggings: Expected Utility and the Future of Humanity'. Ethics: Its Theory and Application from Antiquity to Postmodernity, University of Zagreb, May 2020.

'The Ubiquity of Muggings: Expected Utility and the Future of Humanity'. Graduate Work in Progress Seminar, University of Edinburgh, April 2020.

'Expanding the Situationist Challenge to Reliabilism About Memory'. Ninth Annual Graduate Epistemology Conference, University of Edinburgh, May 2019.

'Second-Personal Theodicy: Coming to Know Why God Permits Suffering by Coming to Know God Himself'. Benedictine Society, University of York, September 2017.                

Teaching

PHIL08015: Morality and Value (Autumn 2020, 2021)

PHIL08016: Greats: From Plato to the Enlightenment (Spring 2020)

PPLS Writing Centre (2019-20)

Dr Martin Smith

Dr Guy Fletcher