Ben Bradley

Syracuse University

Resonance and Modality

16 June 2017, 16:00

Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa

Sala Mattos Romão (Departamento de Filosofia)

Abstract: Subjectivist theories of welfare are largely motivated by a resonance constraint. Roughly, the resonance constraint holds that nothing can be good for someone unless it resonates with them. This general statement of the resonance constraint leaves important questions unanswered. One question involves modality. What does the resonance constraint entail about cases where something resonates with me at one possible world but not another? This is closely related to a second, more widely discussed question: what happens when something resonates with a person at one time but not another? I discuss some different ways we might formulate a resonance constraint. They are importantly different and lead to different results in interesting cases.