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The next session of the PPA colloquium will be coming wednesday 11 June, 16-17.30, with drinks in De Jaren afterwards.  We will discuss the paper by Jan-Willem Wieland titled: 'wasted effort and double universalisation'. 
Event details of Wasted Effort and Double Universalisation
Date
11 June 2025
Time
16:00 -17:30

Why should we stop contributing to collective harms if this is a waste of effort? For example, why change our lifestyles to combat climate change?

My claims:

Ø Instrumental analyses are insufficient. Either they don’t provide reasons to act, or they don’t explain why we should waste our efforts.

Ø Instead, we need two universalization steps to solve the problem (not usually distinguished).

Ø I relate my account to kindred ideas in Kant, Parfit, Rawls, and some others.

Ø Finally, Nefsky’s challenges (superfluity, disconnect) can be addressed.

Keywords: collective action, instrumental, non-instrumental, wasted effort, universalization

For The Ethics of Inefficacy (Routledge, 2026)

Hopefully you can make it for this important discussion.