Professor Michele Moody-Adams (Columbia) will present “Moral Progress and Human Agency” at the CUNY Graduate Center, Skylight Room 9100, Monday, October 5, 2015.
Abstract: I argue that the idea of moral progress is a necessary presupposition of action for beings like us. We must believe that moral progress is possible, and that it might have been realized in human experience at some point in history, if we are to be confident that continued human action can have any morally constructive point. I discuss the implications of this truth for moral psychology. But I also argue that once we understand the complex nature—and the complicated social sources—of moral progress, we will appreciate that we cannot find a single principle, or set of principles, to reliably guide attempts to make the world “a better place.” Yet while the idea of moral progress cannot ultimately yield such principles of action, it can serve, as I’ll show, as a plausible and constructive principle of historical interpretation.
Diana Tietjens Meyers
Passivity in Theories of the Agentic Self: Reflections on the views of Soren Reader and Sara Buss.
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April 25, Saray Alaya-Lopez (Cal. State, Sacramento), “Agency in Structural Explanations of Injustice.” 6:30-8:00pm, CUNY Graduate Center 5414.
May 23, Karen Jones (U. Melbourne), “Radical Consciousness and Epistemic Privilege.” 6:30-8:00pm, CUNY Graduate Center 5414.
People feel on occasion that life should be embraced in a certain way. You only live once, carpe diem, #YOLO: we commonly associate the thought of our limited lives with the thought that we should take adventures, risks, or break with our routines and norms. But how, if at all, does the thought that you only live once motivate adventurous, risky, or unusual behavior? After all, having only one life seems to equally well motivate the exact opposite of adventure and risk. I consider several ways of supporting the thought that life should be embraced. All are found wanting, except one.