Philip Pettit: How Language Gives Birth to Ethics
Public Lectures
How Language Gives Birth to Ethics
Philip Pettit (Princeton University/Australian National University)
Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main
Campus Westend, Hörsaalzentrum, HZ3
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 5, 60323 Frankfurt am Main
Lecture I, 30 May 2016, 6.15pm
Reports, avowals and pledges
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?
Audio:
Lecture II, 31 May, 6.15pm
Desirability and responsibility
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.
Audio:
Presented by:
Kolleg-Forschergruppe Justitia Amplificata in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence "The Formation of Normative Orders"
