Nikhil Venkatesh // Impartiality Without Alienation (and within limits)

Abstract: The leading theories of modern moral philosophy are impartial: they hold that, at a fundamental level of moral inquiry, identity is irrelevant. What some agent ought to do or what some patient ought to have done to them at this level does not depend on which particular agent or patient is in question. One critique of such theories is that they are alienating: they separate morality from our particular points of view, making difficult to see how moral reasons could or should motivate us. Drawing on the literature on solidarity, I try to show how morality could be impartial whilst also giving us reasons that we can identify with, rather than that confront us as alien demands. This has implications for the scope of morality: if we want to avoid alienation, then non-human animals, far future humans, extra-terrestrials and artificial intelligences might fall outside of the limits of impartiality.

Bio:  Nikhil Venkatesh is a moral and political philosopher working at the University of Sheffield. He has published on population ethics, Marxism, the ethics of data and AI, distributive justice, and moral theory. His current project, funded by a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, is entitled ‘Towards a Left-Utilitarianism’.