Evil Artifacts and Extrinsic Value with Gwen Bradford (University of Toronto)

Gwen Bradford studies value theory and normative ethics, and is particularly interested in ill-being—the opposite of well-being—and how perfectionism might account for it. Before joining the University of Toronto, she was an associate professor of philosophy at Rice University, and a Faculty Fellow at the Murphy Institute at Tulane University. Her book, Achievement (Oxford University Press, 2015), focusing on the nature and value of achievement, won the APA Book Prize in 2017.

Abstract

Nazi memorabilia, medieval torture devices, “old sparky,” anthropodermic books, and other such things are examples of what we might call evil artifacts – historical artifacts that are in some important sense bad or evil. This paper explores the contours of the values of evil artifacts. Although this sounds at first like a question of first-order axiology, in fact it gives occasion to explore a thesis concerning formal axiology — specifically, a thesis concerning the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic value. The value of evil artifacts is explained by appealing to familiar first-order goods and bads that come to bear extrinsically in ways that give rise to intrinsic value, both positive and negative.