CFP: International ethics conference: Reasons and Virtues

International Ethics Conference at Australian Catholic University

Reasons and Virtues

The School of Philosophy at ACU is pleased to announce a conference on Reasons and Virtues, to be held at the Melbourne campus, Thursday – Saturday, 21-23 May, 2015.

Among the speakers will be Robert Audi, Garrett Cullity, Rosalind Hursthouse, Karen Jones, Jeanette Kennett, Nicholas Southwood, and Christine Swanton.

Papers of up to 6,000 words and abstracts as short as 1000 words are welcome, and the deadline for full consideration is 15 March.  Abstracts sent in lieu of a full paper should be sufficiently detailed to project the character of the planned paper.  Submissions should be prepared for anonymous review, and should include an abstract of about 200 words at the opening. Shorter pieces should also include a brief summary at the start. Submissions need to be accompanied by name and address in a separate file.  The two files should be sent to [email protected].

Following an assessment of papers and abstracts, authors will be contacted, likely about a month following submission.

The organisers also welcome offers to comment; these should be accompanied by a CV, and sent to [email protected].

A block of rooms will be reserved for presenters and other participants at a conference rate. There is some hope of funds to reduce expense for at least the authors of accepted papers. This will be determined at a later date.

Appropriate topics might include:

·         the nature of moral reasons and their relation to moral virtues;

·         the extent to which virtues or virtuous action might be rule-governed;

·         the conceptual or epistemic priority of reasons over virtues (or of virtues over reasons);

·         the role of virtues or reasons (or both) in practical reasoning or, more broadly, practical wisdom;

·         the objectivity of reasons (or lack of it) and its significance for understanding virtue;

·         the role of reasons and virtues in the constitution of moral agency;

·         the question of how reasons or virtues (or both) figure in understanding moral rights; and

·         the respects in which reasons or virtues (or both) are connected with the emotions.

Conference organizing committee: Robert Audi, Steve Matthews, Stewart Braun.