Hilary Greaves

{{Infobox philosopher

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| name = Hilary Greaves

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| image = Hilary Greaves (20613169345).jpg

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| caption = Greaves in 2015

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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1978}}

| birth_place = Cardiff, Wales

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| education = {{Plainlist|

University of Oxford (BA, 2003)
Rutgers University (PhD, 2008)

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| era = Contemporary philosophy

| region = Western philosophy

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| thesis_title = Spacetime Symmetries and the CPT Theorem

| thesis_url = https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/24390/

| thesis_year = 2008

| doctoral_advisor = Frank Arntzenius

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| main_interests = {{Hlist|Effective altruism|moral philosophy|formal epistemology}}

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| website = {{URL|https://users.ox.ac.uk/~mert2255/}}

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Hilary Greaves (born 1978) is a British philosopher, currently serving as professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford.{{cite web | title = Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford| url = https://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/faculty-members | access-date = 2019-09-10}} 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 Open Philanthropy.{{cite web | title = Global Priorities Institute opens at Oxford | url = https://www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/news/new-global-priorities-institute-opens | access-date = 7 November 2019}}{{cite web |title=People, Global Priorities Institute |url=https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/people/ |access-date=2023-08-13}}

Education

Greaves earned a BA in philosophy and physics from the University of Oxford in 2003, and a PhD in philosophy from Rutgers University in 2008.{{cite web | title = Curriculum vitae: Hilary Greaves | url = http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mert2255/cv.pdf | access-date = 2019-09-10}} Her doctoral thesis was titled Spacetime Symmetries and the CPT Theorem and was supervised by Frank Arntzenius.{{cite thesis|url=https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/24390/|title=Spacetime symmetries and the CPT theorem|website=RUcore|publisher=Rutgers University|access-date=November 2, 2019|doi=10.7282/T3CF9QFX|year=2008|last1=Greaves|first1=Hilary}} She has held appointments at Merton College and Somerville College and, since 2016, has been a professor of philosophy at Oxford.

Research

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,{{cite web|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/british-academy-announces-rising-star-engagement-winners/2019375.article |title=British Academy announces Rising Star Engagement winners |website=Times Higher Education |first=Matthew |last=Riesz |date=2015-03-28 |access-date=2019-11-02}} and moral uncertainty), formal epistemology, and the philosophy of physics,{{cite web | title = Hilary Greaves' home page | url = http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mert2255/ | access-date = 2019-09-10}} particularly quantum mechanics.{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/3886/1/Everett-at-50.pdf |first=Huw |last=Price |author-link=Huw Price |title=Decisions, Decisions, Decisions: Can Savage Salvage Everettian Probability? |encyclopedia=Many Worlds? Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012 |isbn=9780199655502 |oclc=1103786900}}{{cite journal|first=Foad |last=Dizadji-Bahmani |title=The Probability Problem in Everettian Quantum Mechanics Persists |journal=British Journal for the Philosophy of Science |volume=66 |pages=257–283 |number=2 |year=2015 |doi=10.1093/bjps/axt035}}

In October 2022, she was featured in Vox's Future Perfect 50 for her work on longtermism.{{Cite web |last=Matthews |first=Dylan |date=2022-10-20 |title=Hilary Greaves is the world's leading philosopher of the long-term future |url=https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23357140/future-perfect-50-hilary-greaves-professor-philosophy-oxford |access-date=2023-04-26 |website=Vox |language=en}} 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.{{Cite web |last=Samuel |first=Sigal |date=2021-07-02 |title=What we owe to future generations |url=https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22552963/how-to-be-a-good-ancestor-longtermism-climate-change |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=Vox |language=en}}

Selected publications

=Books=

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

=Peer-reviewed articles=

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.{{cite web | title = Cushing Prize 2012 Winner | website = University of Notre Dame | url = https://reilly.nd.edu/news-and-events/events/cushing-memorial-prize/previous-cushing-prize-winners/cushing-prize-2012-winner/ | access-date = 2 November 2019}})