Frankfurt/M.: Zwei Vorträge von Philip Pettit (30. und 31. Mai)

Im Rahmen der Kollegforschergruppe Justitia Amplificata an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt wird Philip Pettit am 30. und 31. Mai 2016 zwei Vorträge zum Thema “How Language Gives Birth to Ethics” halten. Zur weiteren Ankündigung…

 

How Language Gives Birth to Ethics

If the natural world contains no moral properties, how can we human beings find our moral bearings? How can we claim to identify features that make various actions or arrangements morally desirable, various agents or agencies fit to be held morally responsible?

 

Lecture 1

May 30, 2016, 18:15

Reports, avowals and pledges

Might a society of mutually reliant creatures like us use language only for exchanging reports about the world and their attitudes? Not likely. The desire to be taken as credible and reliable interlocutors would push them inevitably into practices of avowing and pledging their attitudes. Where reports are cheap, avowals and pledges are more expensive and more credible; they allow fewer excuses for failing to live up to them.

 

Lecture 2

May 31, 2016, 18:15

Desirability and responsibility

The perspective internal to practices of avowal, in particular the avowal of desire, would make patterns available to such agents that correspond to our idea of desirable options. And the perspective internal to practices of pledging would make patterns available to them that correspond to our idea of agents who are fit to be held responsible for their choices.

 

Hörsaalzentrum Westend Campus | HZ 3

Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 5

60323 Frankfurt am Main