Moral Mathematics: an interview with Campbell Brown

Campbell Brown is one of the most recent additions to our faculty. We thought we’d welcome him to the Department with some questions

Experimental wake survey behind Viking 75 entry vehicle at angles of attack of 0 deg, 5 deg, and 10 deg, Mach numbers from 0.20 to 1.20, and longitudinal stations from 1.50 to 11.00 body diameters

An investigation was conducted to obtain flow properties in the wake of a preliminary configuration of the Viking '75 Entry Vehicle at Mach numbers from 0.20 to 1.20 and at angles of attack of 0 deg, 5 deg, and 10 deg. The wake flow properties were calculated from total and static pressures measured with a pressure rake at longitudinal stations varying from 1.50 to 11.00 body diameters, and are presented in tabulated and plotted form. The wake properties were essentially symmetrical about the X-axis at alpha = 0 deg and the profiles were shifted away from the X-axis at angles of attack. An unexpected reduction in wake property ratios occurred as the Mach number increased from 0.60 to 1.00; these ratios then increased as the Mach number increased to 1.20. The reduction was present for all the longitudinal stations of the tests and decreased with increased longitudinal distance

The significance of value additivity

Whether value is “additive,” that is, whether the value of a whole must equal the sum of the values of its parts, is widely thought to have significant implications in ethics. For example, additivity rules out “organic unities,” and is presupposed by “contrast arguments.” This paper reconsiders the significance of value additivity. The main thesis defended is that it is significant only for a certain class of “mereologies”, roughly, those in which both wholes and parts are “complete”, in the sense that they can exist independently. For example, value additivity is significant in the case of a mereology of material objects, but not in the case of a mereology of propositions