
Symposium VI
The morality of defensive harm
Chaired by Kimberley Brownlee (Warwick)

Rights Against Harm
Jonathan Quong (USC)
Abstract
Some philosophers defend the fact-relative view of moral rights against harm:
Whether B infringes A’s right not to be harmed by φ-ing depends on what will in fact occur if B φ’s. B’s knowledge of, or evidence about, the exact consequences of her φ-ing are irrelevant to the question of whether her φ-ing constitutes an infringement of A’s right not to be harmed by B.
In this paper I argue that the fact-relative view of moral rights is mistaken, and I argue for an alternative view whereby our rights against harm depend on what we can reasonably demand of others. I illustrate the importance of this conclusion with a discussion of liability to defensive harm.
Biography
Jonathan Quong is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California. He taught previously at the University of Manchester, and has held visiting positions at the Australian National University, Princeton University, and Tulane University. His areas of research are political and moral philosophy. He is the author of Liberalism Without Perfection (Oxford, 2011).

Claim rights, duties and lesser-evil justifications
Helen Frowe (Stockholm)
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between a person’s claim right not to be harmed and the duties this claim confers on others. I argue that we should reject Jonathan Quong’s evidence-based account of this relationship, which holds that an agent A’s possession of a claim against B is partly determined by whether it would be reasonable for A to demand B’s compliance with a correlative duty. When B’s evidence is that demanding compliance would not be reasonable, A cannot have a claim against B. I suggest that some of the putatively problematic cases that Quong identifies can be resolved by plausibly narrowing the scope of the right not to be harmed. I also argue that Quong’s view leads to implausible conclusions, and his account of what happens to A’s claim in the face of lesser-evil justifications is inconsistent with his broader view. I then defend the view that agents are required, and not merely permitted, to act on lesser-evil justifications. I further argue that A may not defend herself against the infliction of harms that are justified on lesser-evil grounds. However, she may defend herself in cases where B is only evidentially, and not objectively, justified in harming her.
Biography
Helen Frowe is Wallenberg Academy Research Fellow in Philosophy at Stockholm University, where she directs the Stockholm Centre for the Ethics of War and Peace. Her main research interests are permissible harming and the ethics of war. Her recent publications include Defensive Killing (Oxford, OUP: 2014), How We Fight (co-edited with Gerald Lang, Oxford, OUP: 2014) and The Ethics of War and Peace: An Introduction (Routledge: 2011). Prior to taking up her current post, she was Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Kent and was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Sheffield.
further info

LXXXVIX
University of Warwick
10 - 12 July 2015
Department of Philosophy
Social Sciences Building
Coventry, CV4 7AL
United Kingdom
Local Organisers: Massimo Renzo (Warwick) & Johannes Roessler (Warwick)
Programme edited by Matthew Soteriou (Warwick)
View the 2015 Programme | View the Open & Postgraduate Session Programme | View Joint Session Registration Details | View Info regarding Student Subsidies | View the Schedules for Future Joint Sessions | Listen to Joint Session Podcasts | Learn about the Supplementary Volume
future joint sessions

LXXXVXI
2017 joint session:
Edinburgh
7 - 9 july 2017
Visit our Future Joint Sessions page for further information.
supplementary volume
The inaugural address and symposia for the Joint Session are published in the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume, which is published digitally and in hardcover every June. The Supplementary Volume is sent to subscribing members of the Society in categories 4 and 5.
Members in other categories can purchase the hardcover Supplementary Volume from the Online Shop. Volumes will also be available at the registration desk during the conference.
The hardcover volume is printed in black on an 80gsm white book wove stock accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Binding is in dark blue Arbelave Library Buckram over 2500 micron boards blocked in gold on the spine. This makes for a strong, attractive and durable book with a scuff resistant and wipeable cover.
Subscriptions to the Supplementary Volume also includes online access via Wiley Online Library (please note that one-off purchases of the hardcover volume do not include membership or online access).
Learn more about the Supplementary Volume, including info on how to subscribe to the 2015 edition.
Latest Release: View the abstracts and full papers for the 2014 Supplementary Volume LXXXVIII

past conferences

subscribing memberships
Subscribing members receive online access to the Proceedings from 2000 to the most current issue.
Subscribing members also receive the bound, hardcover volume of the latest Proceedings through the post.
Learn more about subscribing memberships with the Aristotelian Society