Ethics and Political Philosophy Interest Group Talk (Nomy Arpaly, Brown University)

The Ethics and Political Philosophy Research Interest Group welcomes Nomy Arpaly, professor of philosophy at Brown University. Professor Arpaly’s main research interests include ethics, moral psychology, action theory, and free will and her recent seminars have focused on moral psychology.

Talk Title

Deliberation and Fetish.

Abstract

We often take it as speaking well of a person if, before acting, she deliberates as to what the right thing to do is. We often at least partially excuse a person who did the wrong thing in a complicated moral situation because he was trying to do the right thing in a situation where it is hard to figure out. These facts raise questions for the view that praiseworthy moral motivation is concerned with the right de re and not de dicto. I will defend the de re view from the relevant objections. I will also present one way in which disagreement about the value of moral motivation de dicto can follow from the more venerable staring contest between the neo-Humean view of moral motivation and its competitors.

About the Ethics and Political Philosophy Group

The Ethics and Political Philosophy Group meets periodically throughout the year to discuss topics in value theory and related fields, including meta-ethics, normative ethics, applied ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, moral psychology, practical reason, agency, and identity.