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Challenging the Paradigm in Ethics
Humanities Lecture 2004
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Levis Faculty Center, Third Floor
7:00 p.m., Reception follows
James D. Wallace
Professor of Philosophy
Philosophers are deeply divided as to the subject matter of ethics. At the core of the disagreement is this commonly-held assumption: If ethical norms are to serve as objective, authoritative standards of criticism of our institutions and practices, these norms must be independent of those institutions and practices. Philosophers disagree on what such practice-independent standards might be, how we know of them, how we properly use them, and what gives them authority.
Professor Wallace argues that the assumption should be abandoned. If ethical norms are conceived as social artifacts, as components of actual human practices, we can better understand how ethical norms make possible objective, ethical criticism and effective, practical problem-solving.
September 2004
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