This calendar showcases SWIP-Analytic events and a number of talks within train distance of the New York City area given by women working in analytic philosophy. Email our webmaster at swipanalytic@gmail.com to suggest events to add to the calendar!
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SWIP-Analytic: Michele Moody-Adams
October 5, 2015 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Monday, October 5, 2015
5:00 – 7:00 PM
Professor Michele Moody-Adams (Columbia) will present “Moral Progress and Human Agency” at the CUNY Graduate Center, Room 9206, 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.
