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Why The Moral Point of View Is Not A Fully Coherent Point Of View

Wednesday, April 17, 2024 4:15–6:00 PM

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The moral point of view is not a fully coherent point of view. In this paper, Sarah Buss, professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, identifies two reasons why this is so. The first of these reasons is conceptual: because no single virtue is reducible to the disposition to respond appropriately to reasons, the virtues cannot form a perfect unity; only someone with an extremely attenuated set of commitments could insulate herself from the possibility of moral dilemmas. In exploring the second reason, Buss turns attention to the relation between the demands of self-love and the demands of mutual respect. If, Buss suggests, we have difficulty balancing these demands, this is because the ideal of mutual respect is in tension with another moral ideal. In setting the stage for a diagnosis of this second – contingent -- source of our less-than-perfect moral coherence, Buss challenges the conception of moral virtue that is presupposed in discussions of “supererogation.”Catered by Hamilton Whole FoodsSponsored by The Elias J. and Rosa Lee Nemir Audi Lecture Fund

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