Steve Wall, Professor of Philosophy and FC core faculty member, co-authored a paper with David Sobel, Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse, that has been published in Ethics. Here is a short description from David about “The Subjective/Objective Distinction in Well-Being”:
Ethics just accepted a paper that Steve Wall and I co-authored, “The Subjective/Objective Distinction in Well-Being.” This journal is especially meaningful to me. My first two publications were in it and I kinda feel I owe my ability to have a career in philosophy to the luck I have had with this journal. I am also really happy for the work I am doing with Steve to be coming to fruition. Our recent co-authored work is heading in interesting, relatively uncharted directions. And when Steve and I agree about something, I gain a lot of confidence that we are on to something. Co-authoring is just so fun, and I learn more working that way. But mostly I am unusually excited about this paper and glad it has found a good home. A lot of my career was spent claiming we should be subjectivists about this or that. As this debate got into the nitty-gritty, tacit and relatively unexamined assumptions about how to understand the distinction frustratingly started playing a larger role. This paper belatedly addresses, more convincingly to me than other work I am familiar with, how to best understand what is at stake and worth caring about in the distinction between objectivists and subjectivists. This provides, or so it seems to me now, a more solid foundation for future discussion. Suddenly real progress, at least in this tiny but significant domain that I have worked in much of my life, seems possible.
