British Society for Ethical Theory Annual Conference

In July 2016 I presented a paper at the annual session of the British Society for Ethical Theory at Cardiff University, supported by a grant for the Nottingham Centre for Normative Political Theory (CONCEPT). Along with the Society for Applied Philosophy, this is Britain’s major professional association for moral philosophy, and selection to present is highly competitive. Those selected present their papers to the entire conference, with roughly an hour for presentation and discussion.

My presentation was titled 'Discounting and the Fallacy of Division'. It examines the conventional economists' procedure for discounting future costs and benefits, and argues that it is fundamentally flawed. Traditional discounting collapses a variety of possible scenarios—in most of which the economy grows, but in a few of which it contracts—to yield a single value for the growth parameter g. Instead, economists should first assess the costs and benefits of discrete growth scenarios, and give full weight to harms to future people that would leave them poorer than we are.

This conference gave me extensive feedback on a paper I will soon be sending out for review. I'm grateful for CONCEPT's support.

Matthew Rendall, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations