Hilary Greaves (born 1978) is a British philosopher, currently serving as professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford.[1] From 2017 to 2022, she was the founding director of the Global Priorities Institute, a research centre for effective altruism at the university supported by the Open Philanthropy Project.[2][3]

Hilary Greaves
Greaves in 2015
Born1978 (age 45–46)
Education
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
Institutions
ThesisSpacetime Symmetries and the CPT Theorem (2008)
Doctoral advisorFrank Arntzenius
Main interests
Websiteusers.ox.ac.uk/~mert2255/

Education

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Greaves earned a BA in philosophy and physics from the University of Oxford in 2003, and a PhD in philosophy from Rutgers in 2008.[4] Her doctoral thesis was titled Spacetime Symmetries and the CPT Theorem and was supervised by Frank Arntzenius.[5] She has held appointments at Merton College and Somerville College and, since 2016, has been a professor of philosophy at Oxford.[4]

Research

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Greaves' current work is on issues related to effective altruism, particularly in connection to global prioritisation. Her research interests include moral philosophy (including foundational issues in consequentialism, interpersonal aggregation, population ethics,[6] and moral uncertainty), formal epistemology, and the philosophy of physics,[7] particularly quantum mechanics.[8][9]

In October 2022, she was featured in Vox's Future Perfect 50 for her work on longtermism.[10] She has argued that, just as geographical distance should make no difference to how important it is to alleviate a person's suffering (to the extent that one is able to), temporal distance is likewise morally irrelevant. Greaves has defended her longtermist position in terms of both utilitarian outcomes and intergenerational justice.[11]

Selected publications

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Books

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  • Greaves, Hilary, and Theron Pummer (eds). Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues. Oxford University Press, 2019. ISBN 9780192578303

Peer-reviewed articles

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  • Greaves, Hilary. 2013. "Epistemic Decision Theory". Mind. 122, no. 488: 915-952.
  • Greaves, Hilary, and David Wallace. 2006. "Justifying conditionalization: Conditionalization maximizes expected epistemic utility". Mind. 115, no. 459: 607-631.
  • Greaves, Hilary. 2010. "Towards a Geometrical Understanding of the CPT Theorem". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 61, no. 1: 27–50. (Winner of the James T. Cushing Memorial Prize in History and Philosophy of Physics.[12])

References

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  1. ^ "Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford". Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  2. ^ "Global Priorities Institute opens at Oxford". Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  3. ^ "People, Global Priorities Institute". Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Curriculum vitae: Hilary Greaves" (PDF). Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  5. ^ Greaves, Hilary (2008). Spacetime symmetries and the CPT theorem. RUcore (Thesis). Rutgers University. doi:10.7282/T3CF9QFX. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  6. ^ Riesz, Matthew (28 March 2015). "British Academy announces Rising Star Engagement winners". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  7. ^ "Hilary Greaves' home page". Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  8. ^ Price, Huw (2012). "Decisions, Decisions, Decisions: Can Savage Salvage Everettian Probability?" (PDF). Many Worlds? Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199655502. OCLC 1103786900.
  9. ^ Dizadji-Bahmani, Foad (2015). "The Probability Problem in Everettian Quantum Mechanics Persists". British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 66 (2): 257–283. doi:10.1093/bjps/axt035.
  10. ^ Matthews, Dylan (20 October 2022). "Hilary Greaves is the world's leading philosopher of the long-term future". Vox. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  11. ^ Samuel, Sigal (2 July 2021). "What we owe to future generations". Vox. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  12. ^ "Cushing Prize 2012 Winner". University of Notre Dame. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
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