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CEPPA Talk (in-person) – Federico Luzzi (University of Aberdeen)
Title: Against Excellence as the Norm of Ambition
Abstract: This paper investigates norms of ambition, which set the level of achievement one ought to aspire to. I critically examine the widely accepted norm of excellence, which encourages one to seek excellence in one’s pursuits. I argue that while this norm is accepted by default, we should abandon it—absent of special evidence—in favour of the norm of sufficiency, which encourages one to perform merely well enough in one’s pursuits. This move is motivated by two problems confronting the norm of excellence: that living by it likely leads to mishandling one’s moral duties; and that living by it carries risk of significant psychological harm to oneself and others. I defend the norm of sufficiency by arguing that its widespread default acceptance would by and large avoid such harms and still allow for excellent achievement to arise, thus leading to a world no worse and likely better than a world in which the norm of excellence enjoys widespread default acceptance.
Location: Edgecliffe G03