Marcus Arvan
Biographic Data
| ID | 5995306 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marcus Arvan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marcus |
| FAMILY NAME | Arvan |
| SIGNATURE | ARVAN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Tampa |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5683-1055 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Real Time, Simulated Time and Two Types of Time Travel
This article argues that the possibility that we live in a computer simulation has important implications for the philosophy of time and time travel. Section 2 distinguishes real time from simulated time . Section 3 argues that whatever is true of real time, simulated time realises a functional analogue within real time to versions of presentism in which features of the present play the role of an uninstantiated past and future. Section 4 then ar…
‘Interpretability’ and ‘alignment’ are fool’s errands
From rational self-interest to liberalism
Michael Huemer argues that cross-cultural convergence toward liberal moral values is evidence of objective moral progress, and by extension, evidence for moral realism. Nathan Cofnas claims to debunk Huemer’s argument by contending that convergence toward liberal moral values can be better explained by ‘two related non-truth-tracking processes’: self-interest and its long-term tendency to result in social conditions conducive to greater empathy. …
Educational Justice and School Boosting
School boosters are tax-exempt organizations that engage in fundraising efforts to provide public schools with supplementary resources. This paper argues that prevailing forms of school boosting are defeasibly unjust. Section 1 shows that inequalities in public education funding in the United States violate John Rawls’s two principles of domestic justice. Section 2 argues that prevailing forms of school boosting exacerbate and plausibly perpetuat…
Mental time-travel, semantic flexibility, and A.I. ethics
Allies Against Oppression
Liberalism is often claimed to be at odds with feminism and critical race theory (CRT). This article argues, to the contrary, that Rawlsian liberalism supports the central commitments of both. Section 1 argues that Rawlsian liberalism supports intersectional feminism. Section 2 argues that the same is true of CRT. Section 3 then uses Young’s “Five Faces of Oppression”—a classic work widely utilized in feminism and CRT to understand and contest ma…
Trans Women, Cis Women, Alien Women, and Robot Women Are Women
Alex Byrne contends that women are (simply) adult human females, claiming that this thesis has considerably greater initial appeal than the justified true belief (JTB) theory of knowledge. This article refutes Byrne's thesis in the same way the JTB theory of knowledge is widely thought to have been refuted: through simple counterexamples. Lessons are drawn. One lesson is that women need not be human. A second lesson is that biology and physical p…
Two New Doubts about Simulation Arguments
Various theorists contend that we might live in a computer simulation. David Chalmers, in turn, argues that the simulation hypothesis is a metaphysical hypothesis about the nature of our reality, rather than a sceptical scenario. We use recent work on consciousness to motivate new doubts about both sets of arguments. First, we argue that if either panpsychism or panqualityism is true, then the only way to live in a simulation might be as brains-i…
Jury Theorems for Peer Review
Peer review is often taken to be the main form of quality control on academic research. Usually journals carry this out. However, parts of math and physics appear to have a parallel, crowd-sourced model of peer review, where papers are posted on the arXiv to be publicly discussed. In this paper we argue that crowd-sourced peer review is likely to do better than journal-solicited peer review at sorting papers by quality. Our argument rests on two …
Panpsychism and AI consciousness
The Dark Side of Morality
This article argues that philosophers and laypeople commonly conceptualize moral truths or justified moral beliefs as discoverable through intuition, argument, or some other purely cognitive or affective process. It then contends that three empirically well‐supported theories all predict that this “Discovery Model” of morality plays a substantial role in causing social polarization. The same three theories are then used to argue that an alternati…
Rightness as Fairness
This book argues that moral philosophy should be based on seven scientific principles of theory selection. It then argues that a new moral theory—Rightness as Fairness—satisfies those principles more successfully than existing theories. Chapter 1 explicates the seven principles of theory-selection, arguing that moral philosophy must conform to them to be truth-apt. Chapter 2 argues those principles jointly support founding moral philosophy in kno…
Why Hobbes Cannot Limit the Leviathan
This commentary contends that Larry May’s Hobbesian argument for limitations on sovereignty and lawmaking in Limiting Leviathan does not succeed. First, I show that Hobbes begins with a plausible instrumental theory of normativity. Second, I show that Hobbes then attempts, unsuccessfully – by his own lights – to defend a kind of non-instrumental, moral normativity. Thus, I contend, in order to successfully “limit the Leviathan” of the state, the …
First steps toward a nonideal theory of justice
Theorists have long debated whether John Rawls’ conception of justice as fairness can be extended to nonideal (i.e. unjust) social and political conditions, and if so, what the proper way of extending it is. This paper argues that in order to properly extend justice as fairness to nonideal conditions, Rawls’ most famous innovation—the original position—must be reconceived in the form of a ‘nonideal original position’. I begin by providing a new a…
Reconceptualizing human rights
This paper defends several highly revisionary theses about human rights. Section 1 shows that the phrase ‘human rights’ refers to two distinct types of moral claims. Sections 2 and 3 argue that several longstanding problems in human rights theory and practice can be solved if, and only if, the concept of a ‘human right’ is replaced by two more exact concepts: International human rights: moral claims sufficient to warrant coercive domestic and int…
People Do Not Have a Duty to Avoid Voting Badly
Jason Brennan argues that people are morally obligated not to vote badly, where voting badly is voting “without sufficient reason” for harmful or unjust policies or candidates. His argument is: (1) One has an obligation not to engage in collectively harmful activities when refraining from such activities does not impose significant personal costs. (2) Voting badly is to engage in a collectively harmful activity, while abstaining imposes low perso…
In Defense of Discretionary Association Theories of Political Legitimacy
Allen Buchanan has argued that a widely defended view of the nature of the state—the view that the state is a discretionary association for the mutual advantage of its members—must be rejected because it cannot adequately account for moral requirements of humanitarian intervention. This paper argues that Buchanan’s objection is unsuccessful,and moreover, that discretionary association theories can preserve an important distinction that Buchanan’s…
First steps toward a nonideal theory of justice
Theorists have long debated whether John Rawls’ conception of justice as fairness can be extended to nonideal (i.e. unjust) social and political conditions, and if so, what the proper way of extending it is. This paper argues that in order to properly extend justice as fairness to nonideal conditions, Rawls’ most famous innovation—the original position—must be reconceived in the form of a ‘nonideal original position’. I begin by providing a new a…
Jury Theorems for Peer Review
Peer review is often taken to be the main form of quality control on academic research. Usually journals carry this out. However, parts of math and physics appear to have a parallel, crowd-sourced model of peer review, where papers are posted on the arXiv to be publicly discussed. In this paper we argue that crowd-sourced peer review is likely to do better than journal-solicited peer review at sorting papers by quality. Our argument rests on two …
In Defense of Discretionary Association Theories of Political Legitimacy
Allen Buchanan has argued that a widely defended view of the nature of the state—the view that the state is a discretionary association for the mutual advantage of its members—must be rejected because it cannot adequately account for moral requirements of humanitarian intervention. This paper argues that Buchanan’s objection is unsuccessful,and moreover, that discretionary association theories can preserve an important distinction that Buchanan’s…
People Do Not Have a Duty to Avoid Voting Badly
Jason Brennan argues that people are morally obligated not to vote badly, where voting badly is voting “without sufficient reason” for harmful or unjust policies or candidates. His argument is: (1) One has an obligation not to engage in collectively harmful activities when refraining from such activities does not impose significant personal costs. (2) Voting badly is to engage in a collectively harmful activity, while abstaining imposes low perso…
Reconceptualizing human rights
This paper defends several highly revisionary theses about human rights. Section 1 shows that the phrase ‘human rights’ refers to two distinct types of moral claims. Sections 2 and 3 argue that several longstanding problems in human rights theory and practice can be solved if, and only if, the concept of a ‘human right’ is replaced by two more exact concepts: International human rights: moral claims sufficient to warrant coercive domestic and int…
Why Hobbes Cannot Limit the Leviathan
This commentary contends that Larry May’s Hobbesian argument for limitations on sovereignty and lawmaking in Limiting Leviathan does not succeed. First, I show that Hobbes begins with a plausible instrumental theory of normativity. Second, I show that Hobbes then attempts, unsuccessfully – by his own lights – to defend a kind of non-instrumental, moral normativity. Thus, I contend, in order to successfully “limit the Leviathan” of the state, the …
First steps toward a nonideal theory of justice
Theorists have long debated whether John Rawls’ conception of justice as fairness can be extended to nonideal (i.e. unjust) social and political conditions, and if so, what the proper way of extending it is. This paper argues that in order to properly extend justice as fairness to nonideal conditions, Rawls’ most famous innovation—the original position—must be reconceived in the form of a ‘nonideal original position’. I begin by providing a new a…
Rightness as Fairness
This book argues that moral philosophy should be based on seven scientific principles of theory selection. It then argues that a new moral theory—Rightness as Fairness—satisfies those principles more successfully than existing theories. Chapter 1 explicates the seven principles of theory-selection, arguing that moral philosophy must conform to them to be truth-apt. Chapter 2 argues those principles jointly support founding moral philosophy in kno…
The Dark Side of Morality
This article argues that philosophers and laypeople commonly conceptualize moral truths or justified moral beliefs as discoverable through intuition, argument, or some other purely cognitive or affective process. It then contends that three empirically well‐supported theories all predict that this “Discovery Model” of morality plays a substantial role in causing social polarization. The same three theories are then used to argue that an alternati…
Two New Doubts about Simulation Arguments
Various theorists contend that we might live in a computer simulation. David Chalmers, in turn, argues that the simulation hypothesis is a metaphysical hypothesis about the nature of our reality, rather than a sceptical scenario. We use recent work on consciousness to motivate new doubts about both sets of arguments. First, we argue that if either panpsychism or panqualityism is true, then the only way to live in a simulation might be as brains-i…
Jury Theorems for Peer Review
Peer review is often taken to be the main form of quality control on academic research. Usually journals carry this out. However, parts of math and physics appear to have a parallel, crowd-sourced model of peer review, where papers are posted on the arXiv to be publicly discussed. In this paper we argue that crowd-sourced peer review is likely to do better than journal-solicited peer review at sorting papers by quality. Our argument rests on two …
Panpsychism and AI consciousness
Mental time-travel, semantic flexibility, and A.I. ethics
Allies Against Oppression
Liberalism is often claimed to be at odds with feminism and critical race theory (CRT). This article argues, to the contrary, that Rawlsian liberalism supports the central commitments of both. Section 1 argues that Rawlsian liberalism supports intersectional feminism. Section 2 argues that the same is true of CRT. Section 3 then uses Young’s “Five Faces of Oppression”—a classic work widely utilized in feminism and CRT to understand and contest ma…
Trans Women, Cis Women, Alien Women, and Robot Women Are Women
Alex Byrne contends that women are (simply) adult human females, claiming that this thesis has considerably greater initial appeal than the justified true belief (JTB) theory of knowledge. This article refutes Byrne's thesis in the same way the JTB theory of knowledge is widely thought to have been refuted: through simple counterexamples. Lessons are drawn. One lesson is that women need not be human. A second lesson is that biology and physical p…
From rational self-interest to liberalism
Michael Huemer argues that cross-cultural convergence toward liberal moral values is evidence of objective moral progress, and by extension, evidence for moral realism. Nathan Cofnas claims to debunk Huemer’s argument by contending that convergence toward liberal moral values can be better explained by ‘two related non-truth-tracking processes’: self-interest and its long-term tendency to result in social conditions conducive to greater empathy. …
Educational Justice and School Boosting
School boosters are tax-exempt organizations that engage in fundraising efforts to provide public schools with supplementary resources. This paper argues that prevailing forms of school boosting are defeasibly unjust. Section 1 shows that inequalities in public education funding in the United States violate John Rawls’s two principles of domestic justice. Section 2 argues that prevailing forms of school boosting exacerbate and plausibly perpetuat…
Real Time, Simulated Time and Two Types of Time Travel
This article argues that the possibility that we live in a computer simulation has important implications for the philosophy of time and time travel. Section 2 distinguishes real time from simulated time . Section 3 argues that whatever is true of real time, simulated time realises a functional analogue within real time to versions of presentism in which features of the present play the role of an uninstantiated past and future. Section 4 then ar…
‘Interpretability’ and ‘alignment’ are fool’s errands
Epistemology (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Law and economics (8 works) · Politics (7 works) · Psychology (7 works)