Writing

Ethics (or other areas of philosophy)

Introduction to suffering-focused ethics. With Magnus Vinding. August 22, 2024.
Answers in population ethics were published long ago. April 19, 2024.
My moral view: Reducing suffering, ‘how to be’ as fundamental to morality, no positive value, cons of grand theory, and more. August 23, 2023.
Roger Thisdell on undisturbedness, positive experiences, and the hedonic peak. February 17, 2023.
Philosophical Pessimism: Varieties, Importance, and What to Do. The Blog of the American Philosophical Association. Sep. 13, 2022.
Undisturbedness as the hedonic ceiling. September 2, 2022; last updated 3 June 2023.
Pessimism about the value of the future and the welfare of present and future beings based on their acts and traits. Aug. 25, 2022.
Permissible moderate paths to human extinction. 2022.
In support of talking about pessimism, antinatalism, negative utilitarianism, etc. 2020.
Many-valued Logic and Sequence Arguments in Value Theory. Published online 2021 in Synthese. Free official version; preprint.
The World Destruction Argument. Inquiry, 64:10, 1004-1023. 2021. Free official version; preprint with extra material.
Epicurean ideas about pleasure, pain, good and bad. 2019.
Lars Bergström on pessimism, ethics, consequentialism, Ingemar Hedenius, and quantifying well-being. 2019.
Reply to Shulman’s “Are Pain and Pleasure Equally Energy-Efficient?” 2017.
How Could an Empty World Be Better than a Populated One? 2016. Translations: Español, Русский
Measuring happiness and suffering. 2016.
Value lexicality. 2016.
What is the difference between weak negative and non-negative ethical views? 2016.
Thoughts on Ord’s “Why I’m Not a Negative Utilitarian”. 2016.
The One-Paragraph Case for Suffering-Focused Ethics. 2016.
Effective Altruism and Ethics. Published 2016 but work in progress.
The Seriousness of Suffering: Supplement. 2015.
The ‘Asymmetry’ and extinction thought experiments. 2015.

Philosophy career and PhD programs

Animal ethics and effective animal advocacy

A Virtue of Precaution Regarding the Moral Status of Animals with Uncertain Sentience. With Christian Munthe. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 2017 30:213–224. Official full-text view-only; preprint PDF
How Animal Rights Sweden (Djurens Rätt) Can Have More Impact. 2017.
Reducing Suffering among Invertebrates Such as Insects. 2016.
Feeding Vegan Children. 2016.
How Good or Bad Is the Life of an Insect? 2015.
Miljöpolitiken bör ha som mål att förändra naturen för de vilda djurens skull. In Swedish. 2015.
The Moral Importance of Invertebrates Such as Insects. 2015. My master’s thesis in philosophy

Other

On the results of Oxford-style effective altruism, existential risk, and longtermism. December 29, 2022.
Bergström, Lars. 2022. The consequences of pessimism. Translated by Simon Knutsson. Originally published as “Pessimismens konsekvenser” in 1978.
Bergström, Lars. 1978. Pessimismens konsekvenser.
Effective paths to human extinction. May 29, 2021.
Problems in effective altruism and existential risk and what to do about them. 2019.
A lecture I gave at a high school on how to have a positive impact. 2011.

Conversation notes

GiveWell: Elie Hassenfeld, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, March 16, 2014
Bailey Norwood: Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University, e-mail exchange about his US farm animal welfare scores, July 2013
The Humane League: Nick Cooney, Founder and Board Member, e-mail exchange Feb 2012
Vegan Outreach: Matt Ball, Executive Director, e-mail exchange Jan/Feb 2012
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA):
- Ryan Huling, Manager of College Campaigns & Outreach at peta2, PETA US, e-mail exchange where I request evidence of impact, Feb 5, 2012
- Ryan Huling, Manager of College Campaigns & Outreach at peta2, PETA US, Feb 2, 2012
- Harald Ullman, Vice President PETA Germany, Dec 20, 2011