"An Axiology of Aesthetics for Existential Risk"

<a href="https://embed.stanford.edu/iframe/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpurl.stanford.edu%2Fyr107mx0459" class="su-underline">Show Content</a>

Abstract/Contents

Abstract: This paper examines foundational axiological questions in the context of existential risk. Axiology asks what is valuable, and what it is about what's valuable that makes it such. These matters get projected to pure, raw clarity in our present precarious state as a species and civilization: What is it for that we want existential risk to be minimized and the human enterprise to continue? So far, the preponderance of existential risk discourse has ranged from pleading agnosticism regarding axiological fundaments to avowing that the ultimate good resides in the experience of well-being for individuals, i.e., avowing utilitarianism, to argue for the worthiness of addressing existential risk. Such avowals can be questioned however, and as it happens, an alternative axiology emerges from the prior question pertinent to the context of existential risk. When we look into what good we want the world to continue to exist for, we find an aesthetic orientation to the way we value things, and from there, an objective and transcendent conception of the good. Such a conception, it is argued, would be better than that offered by utilitarianism for bringing forth passion toward and about the world with the urgency and intensity existential risks call for.

Author	Raval, Ishan

DOI	https://doi.org/10.25740/yr107mx0459
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/yr107mx0459

Use and reproduction: User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND).

Preferred citation: Raval, I. (2023). "An Axiology of Aesthetics for Existential Risk" in Intersections, Reinforcements, Cascades: Proceedings of the 2023 Stanford Existential Risks Conference. The Stanford Existential Risks Initiative. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/yr107mx0459. https://doi.org/10.25740/yr107mx0459.

Intersections, Reinforcements, Cascades: The Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Stanford Existential Risks Conference

Loading usage metrics...