OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
On most ethical theories, interpersonal comparisons of well-being matter for some decisions, and on some ethical theories, interpersonal comparisons matter for all decisions. But there are very challenging questions about how we can compare the well-being of different individuals. In this presentation, I review how new developments in brain imaging might impact our ability to compare positive and negative experiences across individuals. I argue that brain imaging technology is likely to be able to solve some challenges related to interpersonal comparisons, though not the most challenging philosophical objections. And, even putting aside these objections, I suggest there are particular challenges with comparing positive and negative experiences.