CEPPA Talk

Viviante Fairbank - The Responsible-Inquiry Model of Journalism Abstract: On the traditional, so-called Informational Model of journalism, the primary role of journalism in a functioning democracy is to provide people with true information about a certain range of important topics. Although this model is appealing, I argue that it is unsatisfactory; importantly, it does not ... Read more

Title: Hume’s One and Only Definition of Virtue Abstract: Hume’s moral philosophy is seen by many as a form of virtue ethics that includes two different definitions of virtue. On the one hand, Hume seems to define virtue as a mental quality generating utility and agreeableness to oneself or others. On the other hand, he also ... Read more

Yoshinari Hattori - Why We Must Believe in Free Will and Moral Responsibility: Reconsidering Their Foundations Abstract: This presentation argues that the practice of blaming wrongdoers—especially directing resentment or indignation towards them—is rationally indispensable for us. Pereboom contends that directing resentment or indignation at others is a form of harming them and is unjustified. As ... Read more

Omar Ruiz Rivera - Moral Skill Abstract: This talk is about moral skill—the capacity for morally excellent behaviour. In particular, I engage with Shepherd’s (2022) view that moral skill is “limited in scope, and precarious” (p. 713). To defend this view, Shepherd relies on a distinction between global and local moral skill. The former involves ... Read more

Title: Relational Value: Problems and Prospects Abstract: The concept of “relational value” is widely used in the environmental ethics and policy literatures. In this talk, I will critically assess this use, considering what relational value might add to our existing value categories and what problems it might produce for our thinking about the value of the ... Read more

Title: Going First: Integration with Compensation as a Duty of Justice. Abstract: Racial segregation remains deeply entrenched in many societies such as the United States. (Liberal) integrationists argue that we have a duty to integrate because integration is necessary for racial justice (Anderson 2010). (Egalitarian) pluralists reject a duty to integrate (Shelby 2014, 2016). They hold ... Read more

Title: Conflated Questions in the Ethics of Belief Abstract: It’s common to suppose that epistemology can be understood in close structural parallel with ethics: as ethics is about what to do, epistemology is about what to believe. In this paper I draw attention to an important limit of such parallelisms: in reasoning to belief, agents are ... Read more

Title: The Right to a Healthy Environment and the Case of Climate Change Abstract: Once regarded as a marginal proposal in international human rights, the right to a healthy environment has gained surprisingly widespread acceptance in domestic law across the world.  Recently, the right has become an important part of global climate advocacy, often anchoring legal ... Read more

We are delighted to invite you to a special joint CEPPA/Arché Seminar to introduce the new Professorial Fellow Jennifer Saul, who will give a talk about her recent research, entitled 'When Norm Violations Come Out of the Shadows'.

Title: Democratic Instrumentalism and the Threat of Authoritarianism Abstract: The instrumentalism of the title says roughly that the form of governance that would be feasibly best in any circumstances is any one whose establishment and operation would bring about consequences morally no worse than those of any other that might instead be put in place.  I ... Read more