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WiP - Harjit Bhogal / The moral special sciences

A bearded man sitting in front of a green chalkboard, with his hands up as if to measure a 2ft length, teaching a class.

WiP - Harjit Bhogal / The moral special sciences

Philosophy Wednesday, October 23, 2024 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Skinner Building

October 23, Harjit Bhogal leads our Work-in-Progress theories, asking whether a simple moral theory, such as act utilitarianism, might play the role that Newtonian mechanics does in the physical sciences, with a number of additional "moral special sciences" generated via descriptive resources that "capture the richness of the moral world." Harjit's abstract is below

Act utilitarianism is an elegant and theoretically virtuous moral theory. But many worry that these theoretical virtues come at the cost of implausibly flattening the moral world — of ignoring the richness and complexity of morality, of stripping out much of what is morally important. 

Newtonian mechanics is also an elegant and theoretically virtuous theory. Do we worry that it doesn't capture the richness of the natural world? Perhaps not, because there is a familiar leveled picture of the natural world. The fundamental physical level seems to give rise to a variety of special sciences -- biology, geology, oceanography, economics etc. -- which can all explain natural phenomena in distinctive ways. 

Could we have an analogous leveled picture of morality? And so does the act utilitarian, or defender of some other sparse moral theory, have more resources to capture the richness of the moral world? This paper starts that investigation.

Add to Calendar 10/23/24 13:00:00 10/23/24 14:00:00 America/New_York WiP - Harjit Bhogal / The moral special sciences

October 23, Harjit Bhogal leads our Work-in-Progress theories, asking whether a simple moral theory, such as act utilitarianism, might play the role that Newtonian mechanics does in the physical sciences, with a number of additional "moral special sciences" generated via descriptive resources that "capture the richness of the moral world." Harjit's abstract is below

Act utilitarianism is an elegant and theoretically virtuous moral theory. But many worry that these theoretical virtues come at the cost of implausibly flattening the moral world — of ignoring the richness and complexity of morality, of stripping out much of what is morally important. 

Newtonian mechanics is also an elegant and theoretically virtuous theory. Do we worry that it doesn't capture the richness of the natural world? Perhaps not, because there is a familiar leveled picture of the natural world. The fundamental physical level seems to give rise to a variety of special sciences -- biology, geology, oceanography, economics etc. -- which can all explain natural phenomena in distinctive ways. 

Could we have an analogous leveled picture of morality? And so does the act utilitarian, or defender of some other sparse moral theory, have more resources to capture the richness of the moral world? This paper starts that investigation.

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