Ben Katz has paper accepted at national conference

Philosophy major Ben Katz will present his paper "Welfare Hedonism and the Improved Experience Machine Objection" at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Richmond, Virgina this April.  Katz originally wrote the paper for his Advanced Moral Philosophy course with Dr. Mark Piper and subsequently revised the paper for presentation and publication.  When asked about his paper, Katz said "the paper is largely a rebuttal to Jennifer Hawkins reformulation of Robert Nozick's experience machine objection to welfare hedonism. She argues that if two twins live the exact same life, but one was living in the real world while the other was in a simulation, the one experiencing reality would be living better. I argue, however, that this reformulation gives the twins asymmetrical agency and removes a crucial aspect of the original." Congratulations, Ben!