Speakers
Julia Nefsky (Keynote), Dmitry Ananiev, Henrik Andersson & Jakob Werkm盲ster, Zach Barnett, Gunnar Bj枚rnsson, Mark Budolfson, James Christensen, Annalisa Costella, Mattias Gunnemyr, Frank Hindriks, S盲de Hormio, Holly Lawford-Smith & William Tuckwell, Joakim Sandberg, Carolina Sartorio, Tessa Sup猫r, and Jan Willem Wieland.
Please find abstracts below!
About the Conference
Many significant outcomes arise from the combined actions of multiple individuals, even though no single action is pivotal to the result. Examples include addressing climate change, preventing overfishing, tackling injustices in the global garment industry, and divesting from unethical companies. While most agree that individuals have moral reasons to act in such scenarios, this raises a normative challenge 鈥 the 鈥淚nefficacy Problem鈥: When and why do individuals have reasons to act, even when their actions seem to make no discernible difference?
Since Parfit鈥檚 influential Reasons and Persons (1984), this question has sparked extensive philosophical inquiry. Recently, interest in the Inefficacy Problem has surged, generating lively debate among philosophers and beyond. The aim of this conference is to explore and advance new solutions to this puzzle, fostering critical dialogue and collaboration among contributors.
Programme
June 1
Evening: social event
June 2
09.00 Welcome
09.30 Holly Lawford-Smith and William Tuckwell 鈥Lifestyle Politics鈥
Commentators: Mark Budolfson and Joakim Sandberg
10:30 Mattias Gunnemyr 鈥淐ollective Harms and The Strength of Reasons鈥
Commentators: Holly Lawford-Smith and Carolina Sartorio
11:30 ---Coffee break---
11:50 Carolina Sartorio 鈥淭he Structure of Outcome Responsibility: Lessons for the Ethics of Inefficacy鈥
Commentators: Gunnar Bj枚rnsson and William Tuckwell
12:50 ---Lunch break---
14:00 Jan Willem Wieland 鈥Wasted Effort and Double Universalization鈥
Commentators: Zach Barnett and James Christensen
15:00 Dmitry Ananiev 鈥淜antian Imperfect Duties and Collective Harm Cases鈥
Commentators: Tessa Sup猫r and Annalisa Costella
16:00 ---Coffee break---
16:20 Henrik Andersson and Jakob Werkm盲ster 鈥淲hy We Should Not Be Surprised That There Are No Non-Threshold Cases鈥
Commentators: Annalisa Costella and S盲de Hormio
17:15 ---End of day---
June 3
10.30 Joakim Sandberg 鈥Why Inefficacy Matters: In Defense of Comprehensive Consequentialism鈥
Commentators: William Tuckwell and Carolina Sartorio
11:30 ---Coffee break---
11:50 Tessa Sup猫r 鈥淚nefficacy Induced Temptation鈥 (winner Young Scholar Award)
Commentators: Dmitry Ananiev and Julia Nefsky
12:50 ---Lunch break---
14:00 Annalisa Costella 鈥淭he Problem of Self-defeat: The Emperor鈥檚 New Clothes?鈥
Commentators: Zach Barnett and S盲de Hormio
15:00 S盲de Hormio 鈥淐ontributing Enough: Acting in the Absence of a Relevant Difference鈥
Commentators: Julia Nefsky and Mark Budolfson
16:00 ---Coffee break---
16:20 Keynote: Julia Nefsky 鈥淭he Other Side of the Inefficacy Coin鈥
19:00 ---Dinner---
鈥
June 4
09.30 Mark Budolfson 鈥Evaluating the new generation of replies to the inefficacy objection to consequentialism鈥
Commentators: Gunnar Bj枚rnsson and Joakim Sandberg
10:30 Frank Hindriks 鈥Threshold Contractualism: A Solution to the Insignificance Problem鈥
Commentators: Dmitry Ananiev and James Christensen
11:30 ---Coffee break---
11:50 Zach Barnett 鈥淚s There an Inefficacy Problem?鈥
Commentators: Henrik Andersson and Frank Hindriks
12:50 ---Lunch break---
14:00 James Christensen 鈥淭rading with Tyrants鈥
Commentators: Tessa Sup猫r and Holly Lawford-Smith
15:00 Gunnar Bj枚rnsson 鈥Instrumental Reasons Without Difference-Making鈥
Commentators: Henrik Andersson and Frank Hindriks
16:00 ---End of conference---
Post-Conference Seminar
We are excited to announce an online-only seminar to discuss the chapters of two of our esteemed contributors who are unable to attend the conference in person.
Contributors and Topics:
Chrisoula Andreou: "Benevolence, Free Riding, and Efficacy"
Nikhil Venkatesh: "Collective Impact and the Problem of Mixed Optimality"
Details: June 13, 2025. 15:00 to 17:00 (Amsterdam/Stockholm time)
This seminar will provide an opportunity for in-depth discussion and engagement with their work. We encourage all participants to join and contribute to the conversation.
Publication and Awards
Most conference contributions will be published in the volume The Ethics of Inefficacy at Routledge in 2026. Mattias Gunnemyr (University 91探花), Rutger van Oeveren (Rutgers University), and Jan Willem Wieland (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) will edit the volume.
The conference also includes a Young Scholar Award for PhD students and recent graduates (within three years of their PhD defense by the conference date). The winner of the young scholar award is Tessa Sup猫r, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, for her excellent paper 鈥淚nefficacy Induced Temptation鈥, which argues that Michael Bratman鈥檚 model of self-governance cannot solve the temptation problem in cases where the temptation arises because giving in to it does not make a difference to the overall outcome.
91探花: Mattias Gunnemyr (University 91探花), Rutger van Oeveren (Rutgers University), and Jan Willem Wieland (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
The conference is organised in collaboration with the Financial Ethics Research Group, the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of 91探花 at the University 91探花, and the Department of Philosophy at Stockholm University. We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Royal Society of Arts and 91探花s in Gothenburg (KVVS), the International Social Ontology Society (ISOS), and the Erik and Gurli Hultengren Fund for Philosophy at Lund University.
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