Thought: A Journal of Philosophy

Volume 11, Issue 1, March 2022

Thomas RoweOrcid-ID, David PapineauOrcid-ID
Pages 59-63

Everett, Lotteries, and Fairness

Defenders of the Everettian version of quantum mechanics generally hold that it makes no difference to what we ought to do. This paper will argue against this stance, by considering the use of lotteries to select the recipients of indivisible goods. On orthodox non-Everettian metaphysics this practice faces the objection that only actual and not probable goods matter to distributive justice. However, this objection loses all force within Everettianism. This result should be of interest to both philosophers of physics and to ethicists.