Thomas Pölzler
Biographic Data
| ID | 1218641 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas Pölzler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas |
| FAMILY NAME | Pölzler |
| SIGNATURE | PÖLZLER T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Graz |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4311-0897 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
How to Do Empirical Political Philosophy
In recent years an increasing number of political philosophers have begun to ground their arguments in empirical evidence. I investigate this novel approach by way of example. The object of my case study is David Miller’s renewed empirical argument for a needs-based principle of justice. First, I introduce Miller’s argument. Then I raise four worries about the application of his methodology that give rise to corresponding general recommendations …
Moral progress, knowledge and error
A prevalent assumption in metaethics is that people believe in moral objectivity. If this assumption were true then people should believe in the possibility of objective moral progress, objective moral knowledge, and objective moral error. We developed surveys to investigate whether these predictions hold. Our results suggest that, neither abstractly nor concretely, people dominantly believe in the possibility of objective moral progress, knowled…
Broad, subjective, relative
Some normative theorists appeal to the concept of basic needs. They argue that when it comes to issues such as global justice, intergenerational justice, human rights or sustainable development our first priority should be that everybody is able to meet these needs. But what are basic needs? We attempt to inform discussions about this question by gathering evidence of ordinary English speakers’ intuitions on the concept of basic needs. First, we …
Thought experiments and experimental ethics
Experimental ethicists investigate traditional ethical questions with non-traditional means, namely with the methods of the empirical sciences. Studies in this area have made heavy use of philosophical thought experiments such as the well-known trolley cases. Yet, the specific function of these thought experiments within experimental ethics has received little consideration. In this paper we attempt to fill this gap. We begin by describing the fu…
Implicit Metaethical Intuitions
Philosophical arguments often assume that the folk tends towards moral objectivism. Although recent psychological studies have indicated that lay persons’ attitudes to morality are best characterized in terms of non-objectivism-leaning pluralism, it has been maintained that the folk may be committed to moral objectivism implicitly . Since the studies conducted so far almost exclusively assessed subjects’ metaethical attitudes via explicit cogniti…
An empirical argument against moral non-cognitivism
According to non-cognitivism, moral sentences and judgements do not aim to represent how things morally are. This paper presents an empirical argument against this view. We begin by showing that non-cognitivism entails the prediction that after some reflection competent ordinary speakers’ semantic intuitions favor that moral sentences and judgements do not aim to represent how things morally are. At first sight, this prediction may seem to have b…
Reason and Ethics
Journal Article Reason and Ethics: The Case Against Objective Value Get access Reason and Ethics: The Case Against Objective Value. By Joel Marks. (New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. Pp. 226. Price £38.99 paperback, £130.00 hardback.) Thomas Pölzler Thomas Pölzler University of Graz, Austria Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 73, Issue 4, October 2023, Pages 1329–1332, https://…
Basic Needs and Sufficiency
This chapter addresses a theory of intergenerational justice that is referred to as needs-based sufficientarianism. According to needs-based sufficientarianism, the present generation ought to enable future generations to meet their basic needs—for example, their needs for drinkable water, food, and healthcare. The authors’ aim is to explain and defend this theory in a programmatic way. First, they introduce what they regard as the most plausible…
Natural Hazards under Climate Change Conditions
Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of certain kinds of natural hazard events in alpine areas. This interdisciplinary study addresses the hypothetical possibility of relocating the residents of three alpine areas in Austria: the Sölk valleys, the Johnsbach valley, and the St. Lorenzen/Schwarzenbach valleys. Our particular focus is on these residents’ expectations about such relocations. We find that (1) many residents expect that…
Should morality be abolished? An empirical challenge to the argument from intolerance
Moral abolitionists claim that morality ought to be abolished. According to one of their most prominent arguments, this is because making moral judgments renders people significantly less tolerant toward anyone who holds divergent views. In this paper we investigate the hypothesis that morality’s tolerance-decreasing effect only occurs if people are realists about moral issues, i.e., they interpret these issues as objectively grounded. We found s…
The typicality effect in basic needs
According to the so-called Classical Theory, concepts are mentally represented by individually necessary and jointly sufficient application conditions. One of the principal empirical objections against this view stems from evidence that people judge some instances of a concept to be more typical than others. In this paper we present and discuss four empirical studies that investigate the extent to which this ‘typicality effect’ holds for the conc…
Toby Ord, The Precipice
The Relativistic Car
Almost all participants in the debate about the ethics of accidents with self-driving cars have so far assumed moral universalism. However, universalism may be philosophically more controversial than is commonly thought, and may lead to undesirable results in terms of non-moral consequences and feasibility. There thus seems to be a need to also start considering what I refer to as the “relativistic car” — a car that is programmed under the assump…
Teaching & learning guide for
From the day on which humans are born they need things. Some of these needs seem “basic,” such as our needs for food, water or shelter. Everybody has these needs. We cannot escape them. We also cannot escape the serious harm that arises when these needs remain unsatisfied. It is thus no wonder that in thinking about what we ought to do some researchers have suggested to first and foremost focus on people's basic needs. Such need-based theories mu…
Basic needs in normative contexts
In answering normative questions, researchers sometimes appeal to the concept of basic needs. Their guiding idea is that our first priority should be to ensure that everybody is able to meet these needs-to have enough in terms of food, water, shelter, and so on. This article provides an opinionated overview of basic needs in normative contexts. Any basic needs theory must answer three questions: (1) What are basic needs? (2) To what extent do bas…
Against overgeneralisation objections to the argument from moral disagreement
According to the argument from moral disagreement, the existence of widespread or persistent moral disagreement is best explained by, and thus supports, the view that there are no objective moral truths. One of the most common charges against this argument is that it “overgeneralises”: it implausibly forces its proponents to also deny the existence of objective truths about certain matters of physics, history, philosophy, etc. (“companions in gui…
Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World
Much human misery arises from flawed thinking. For example, people overestimate the probability of bad outcomes or take their lives to be worse than they actually are. It seems obvious that philosophy—with its emphasis on reason and evidence—can help to identify such flaws. So far philosophical contributions to cognitive therapy or self-help have mainly drawn on two sources: ancient thinkers such as Epicurus, Seneca, and Epictetus; and existentia…
Empirical research on folk moral objectivism
Lay persons may have intuitions about morality's objectivity. What do these intuitions look like? And what are their causes and consequences? In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have begun to investigate these questions empirically. This article presents and assesses the resulting area of research as well as its potential philosophical implications. First, we introduce the methods of empirical research on folk moral objectivism. Sec…
Entschädigung für historisches Unrecht
According to the non-identity problem, the descendants of victims of historical injustices do not have claims to compensation. Some authors have recently argued that while there are indeed no claims to compensation for the original injustices, such claims might begrounded in the continuing non-compensation for these injustices. In this article I analyze this „continuing injustice argument“. Having introduced the argument, I defend it against thre…
Camus’ Feeling of the Absurd
Can the empirical sciences contribute to the moral realism/anti-realism debate
An increasing number of moral realists and anti-realists have recently attempted to support their views by appeal to science. Arguments of this kind (such as evolutionary debunking arguments or arguments from moral disagreement) are typically criticized on the object-level. In addition, however, one occasionally also comes across a more sweeping metatheoretical skepticism. Scientific contributions to the question of the existence of objective mor…
Are moral judgements adaptations? Three reasons why it is so difficult to tell
An increasing number of scholars argue that moral judgements are adaptations, i.e. that they have been shaped by natural selection. Is this hypothesis true? In this paper I shall not attempt to answer this important question. Rather, I pursue the more modest aim of pointing out three difficulties that anybody who sets out to determine the adaptedness of moral judgments should be aware of (though some so far have not been aware of). First, the hyp…
Further problems with projectivism
From David Hume onwards, many philosophers have argued that moral thinking is characterised by a tendency to ‘project’ our own mental states onto the world. This metaphor of projection may be understood as involving two empirical claims: the claim that humans experience morality as a realm of objective facts (the experiential hypothesis), and the claim that this moral experience is immediately caused by affective attitudes (the causal hypothesis)…
Comment on Sabine Hohl and Dominic Roser. Stepping in for the Polluters? Climate Justice under Partial Compliance
Article Comment on Sabine Hohl and Dominic Roser. Stepping in for the Polluters? Climate Justice under Partial Compliance was published on November 1, 2011 in the journal Analyse & Kritik (volume 33, issue 2).
Empirical research on folk moral objectivism
Lay persons may have intuitions about morality's objectivity. What do these intuitions look like? And what are their causes and consequences? In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have begun to investigate these questions empirically. This article presents and assesses the resulting area of research as well as its potential philosophical implications. First, we introduce the methods of empirical research on folk moral objectivism. Sec…
Basic needs in normative contexts
In answering normative questions, researchers sometimes appeal to the concept of basic needs. Their guiding idea is that our first priority should be to ensure that everybody is able to meet these needs-to have enough in terms of food, water, shelter, and so on. This article provides an opinionated overview of basic needs in normative contexts. Any basic needs theory must answer three questions: (1) What are basic needs? (2) To what extent do bas…
The typicality effect in basic needs
According to the so-called Classical Theory, concepts are mentally represented by individually necessary and jointly sufficient application conditions. One of the principal empirical objections against this view stems from evidence that people judge some instances of a concept to be more typical than others. In this paper we present and discuss four empirical studies that investigate the extent to which this ‘typicality effect’ holds for the conc…
Teaching & learning guide for
From the day on which humans are born they need things. Some of these needs seem “basic,” such as our needs for food, water or shelter. Everybody has these needs. We cannot escape them. We also cannot escape the serious harm that arises when these needs remain unsatisfied. It is thus no wonder that in thinking about what we ought to do some researchers have suggested to first and foremost focus on people's basic needs. Such need-based theories mu…
Comment on Sabine Hohl and Dominic Roser. Stepping in for the Polluters? Climate Justice under Partial Compliance
Article Comment on Sabine Hohl and Dominic Roser. Stepping in for the Polluters? Climate Justice under Partial Compliance was published on November 1, 2011 in the journal Analyse & Kritik (volume 33, issue 2).
Further problems with projectivism
From David Hume onwards, many philosophers have argued that moral thinking is characterised by a tendency to ‘project’ our own mental states onto the world. This metaphor of projection may be understood as involving two empirical claims: the claim that humans experience morality as a realm of objective facts (the experiential hypothesis), and the claim that this moral experience is immediately caused by affective attitudes (the causal hypothesis)…
Are moral judgements adaptations? Three reasons why it is so difficult to tell
An increasing number of scholars argue that moral judgements are adaptations, i.e. that they have been shaped by natural selection. Is this hypothesis true? In this paper I shall not attempt to answer this important question. Rather, I pursue the more modest aim of pointing out three difficulties that anybody who sets out to determine the adaptedness of moral judgments should be aware of (though some so far have not been aware of). First, the hyp…
Entschädigung für historisches Unrecht
According to the non-identity problem, the descendants of victims of historical injustices do not have claims to compensation. Some authors have recently argued that while there are indeed no claims to compensation for the original injustices, such claims might begrounded in the continuing non-compensation for these injustices. In this article I analyze this „continuing injustice argument“. Having introduced the argument, I defend it against thre…
Camus’ Feeling of the Absurd
Can the empirical sciences contribute to the moral realism/anti-realism debate
An increasing number of moral realists and anti-realists have recently attempted to support their views by appeal to science. Arguments of this kind (such as evolutionary debunking arguments or arguments from moral disagreement) are typically criticized on the object-level. In addition, however, one occasionally also comes across a more sweeping metatheoretical skepticism. Scientific contributions to the question of the existence of objective mor…
Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World
Much human misery arises from flawed thinking. For example, people overestimate the probability of bad outcomes or take their lives to be worse than they actually are. It seems obvious that philosophy—with its emphasis on reason and evidence—can help to identify such flaws. So far philosophical contributions to cognitive therapy or self-help have mainly drawn on two sources: ancient thinkers such as Epicurus, Seneca, and Epictetus; and existentia…
Empirical research on folk moral objectivism
Lay persons may have intuitions about morality's objectivity. What do these intuitions look like? And what are their causes and consequences? In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have begun to investigate these questions empirically. This article presents and assesses the resulting area of research as well as its potential philosophical implications. First, we introduce the methods of empirical research on folk moral objectivism. Sec…
Against overgeneralisation objections to the argument from moral disagreement
According to the argument from moral disagreement, the existence of widespread or persistent moral disagreement is best explained by, and thus supports, the view that there are no objective moral truths. One of the most common charges against this argument is that it “overgeneralises”: it implausibly forces its proponents to also deny the existence of objective truths about certain matters of physics, history, philosophy, etc. (“companions in gui…
Toby Ord, The Precipice
The Relativistic Car
Almost all participants in the debate about the ethics of accidents with self-driving cars have so far assumed moral universalism. However, universalism may be philosophically more controversial than is commonly thought, and may lead to undesirable results in terms of non-moral consequences and feasibility. There thus seems to be a need to also start considering what I refer to as the “relativistic car” — a car that is programmed under the assump…
Teaching & learning guide for
From the day on which humans are born they need things. Some of these needs seem “basic,” such as our needs for food, water or shelter. Everybody has these needs. We cannot escape them. We also cannot escape the serious harm that arises when these needs remain unsatisfied. It is thus no wonder that in thinking about what we ought to do some researchers have suggested to first and foremost focus on people's basic needs. Such need-based theories mu…
Basic needs in normative contexts
In answering normative questions, researchers sometimes appeal to the concept of basic needs. Their guiding idea is that our first priority should be to ensure that everybody is able to meet these needs-to have enough in terms of food, water, shelter, and so on. This article provides an opinionated overview of basic needs in normative contexts. Any basic needs theory must answer three questions: (1) What are basic needs? (2) To what extent do bas…
Basic Needs and Sufficiency
This chapter addresses a theory of intergenerational justice that is referred to as needs-based sufficientarianism. According to needs-based sufficientarianism, the present generation ought to enable future generations to meet their basic needs—for example, their needs for drinkable water, food, and healthcare. The authors’ aim is to explain and defend this theory in a programmatic way. First, they introduce what they regard as the most plausible…
Natural Hazards under Climate Change Conditions
Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of certain kinds of natural hazard events in alpine areas. This interdisciplinary study addresses the hypothetical possibility of relocating the residents of three alpine areas in Austria: the Sölk valleys, the Johnsbach valley, and the St. Lorenzen/Schwarzenbach valleys. Our particular focus is on these residents’ expectations about such relocations. We find that (1) many residents expect that…
Should morality be abolished? An empirical challenge to the argument from intolerance
Moral abolitionists claim that morality ought to be abolished. According to one of their most prominent arguments, this is because making moral judgments renders people significantly less tolerant toward anyone who holds divergent views. In this paper we investigate the hypothesis that morality’s tolerance-decreasing effect only occurs if people are realists about moral issues, i.e., they interpret these issues as objectively grounded. We found s…
The typicality effect in basic needs
According to the so-called Classical Theory, concepts are mentally represented by individually necessary and jointly sufficient application conditions. One of the principal empirical objections against this view stems from evidence that people judge some instances of a concept to be more typical than others. In this paper we present and discuss four empirical studies that investigate the extent to which this ‘typicality effect’ holds for the conc…
Implicit Metaethical Intuitions
Philosophical arguments often assume that the folk tends towards moral objectivism. Although recent psychological studies have indicated that lay persons’ attitudes to morality are best characterized in terms of non-objectivism-leaning pluralism, it has been maintained that the folk may be committed to moral objectivism implicitly . Since the studies conducted so far almost exclusively assessed subjects’ metaethical attitudes via explicit cogniti…
An empirical argument against moral non-cognitivism
According to non-cognitivism, moral sentences and judgements do not aim to represent how things morally are. This paper presents an empirical argument against this view. We begin by showing that non-cognitivism entails the prediction that after some reflection competent ordinary speakers’ semantic intuitions favor that moral sentences and judgements do not aim to represent how things morally are. At first sight, this prediction may seem to have b…
Reason and Ethics
Journal Article Reason and Ethics: The Case Against Objective Value Get access Reason and Ethics: The Case Against Objective Value. By Joel Marks. (New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. Pp. 226. Price £38.99 paperback, £130.00 hardback.) Thomas Pölzler Thomas Pölzler University of Graz, Austria Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 73, Issue 4, October 2023, Pages 1329–1332, https://…
Moral progress, knowledge and error
A prevalent assumption in metaethics is that people believe in moral objectivity. If this assumption were true then people should believe in the possibility of objective moral progress, objective moral knowledge, and objective moral error. We developed surveys to investigate whether these predictions hold. Our results suggest that, neither abstractly nor concretely, people dominantly believe in the possibility of objective moral progress, knowled…
Broad, subjective, relative
Some normative theorists appeal to the concept of basic needs. They argue that when it comes to issues such as global justice, intergenerational justice, human rights or sustainable development our first priority should be that everybody is able to meet these needs. But what are basic needs? We attempt to inform discussions about this question by gathering evidence of ordinary English speakers’ intuitions on the concept of basic needs. First, we …
Thought experiments and experimental ethics
Experimental ethicists investigate traditional ethical questions with non-traditional means, namely with the methods of the empirical sciences. Studies in this area have made heavy use of philosophical thought experiments such as the well-known trolley cases. Yet, the specific function of these thought experiments within experimental ethics has received little consideration. In this paper we attempt to fill this gap. We begin by describing the fu…
How to Do Empirical Political Philosophy
In recent years an increasing number of political philosophers have begun to ground their arguments in empirical evidence. I investigate this novel approach by way of example. The object of my case study is David Miller’s renewed empirical argument for a needs-based principle of justice. First, I introduce Miller’s argument. Then I raise four worries about the application of his methodology that give rise to corresponding general recommendations …
Epistemology (19 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Philosophical Ethics and Theory (12 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (11 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (7 works) · Social Psychology (6 works)