Edgecliffe 104

Title: Merely Imagined Moralities Abstract: Artworks and other cultural products (films, novels, operas, pop songs, etc.) often express heroic, pessimistic, melancholy, or dark ways of looking at the world (also referred to as ‘perspectives’). Sometimes, these worldviews appear politically inflected; we may, for instance, describe a work as "feminist" or "patriotic" according to the worldview ... Read more

Title: The (Aesthetic) Value of Environmental Activism Abstract: TBC Location: Edgecliffe G03

Title: Hope and the Powers of Shared Agency Abstract: This paper argues that Kant’s theory of radical evil exalts the powers of organized, shared and institutional, agency. In section 1, I illustrate the paradoxicality of radical evil and the novelty of Kant’s “empowering” conception focused on human agency. In section 2, I argue that radical evil ... Read more

Title: Autonomy and control over one’s social self-consciousness Abstract: Humans have the capacity to absorb – to feel – others’ feelings. More particularly we feel others’ feelings about ourselves: at least as long as we are awake, we are subject to being self-consciously affected in our interactions with others. We are capable of social self-consciousness, and ... Read more

Title: The Incomparable Value of the Individual Abstract: Kant believed that every human being should be treated as an end in itself. In the Groundwork, Kant explains many of our duties by arguing that their violation would involve treating a human being as a mere means. But we cannot explain all of our duties that way. Nor ... Read more