Selected Papers
Lee Shepski
The Vanishing Argument from Queerness
(Click title for paper in PDF. This is a preprint of an article whose final and definitive form will be published in The Australasian Journal of Philosophy; The Australasian Journal of Philosophy is available online at http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/.)Abstract: The ‘argument from queerness’, made famous by J. L. Mackie, remains one of the most influential arguments in metaethics. However, many philosophers focus on just one or two of its strands, while others assume a particular but by no means universal reading of it. This essay attempts to disentangle and evaluate all strands of the argument. Surprisingly, when this is done, not much is left as a distinct argument from queerness. Much of the argument collapses into other types of argument, and what is left, though intuitively appealing, is not viable as philosophical argument.
Prisoner’s Dilemma: The Hard Problem
(click title for paper in PDF)This is a short paper I presented at a colloquium at the Pacific APA in March 2006. It provides a pithy introduction to the Prisoner’s Dilemma, critiques one suggested solution to the problem, and offers my own take on the how and why of the correct solution.
Abstract: Many treatments of the Prisoner’s Dilemma attempt to evade the conclusion that ‘defecting’ is rational by relaxing one or more constraints on the problem. I argue that an ultimately satisfying solution must respect all of the following constraints: (1) the game is single-play; (2) agreements, if any, cannot be enforced; (3) preference orderings are not altered so that it is no longer the case that each player’s dominant strategy is to defect; (4) the prisoners’ choices are causally and probabilistically independent; and (5) the participants possess merely ordinary (rather than ideal) rationality. I argue that when these constraints are in place it will be difficult and perhaps impossible to evade the conclusion that defecting is rational. I further conclude that this should not, in the end, be a surprising result.