Moral Revolutions: Institutional and Ideational Dimensions

*Event date:* Saturday, 5 July – Sunday, 6 July 2014



*Confirmed speakers:*

   - Shaun Nichols (Dept. of Philosophy, University of Arizona)
   - Elizabeth Heger Boyle (Dept. of Sociology, University of Minnesota)
   - Ben Cislaghi (Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research, Tostan)
   - Ann Marie Clark (Dept. of Political Science, Purdue University)
   - Nigel Pleasants (Dept. of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology,
   University of Exeter)
   - Hans Peter Schmitz (Dept. of Political Science, Maxwell School of
   Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University)



*Description: *

Moral revolutions are rapid changes in the widely shared moral attitudes of
a given society. In moral revolutions, these changes in moral attitudes are
accompanied by institutional changes. Examples of moral revolutions include
the expansion of the democratic franchise to non-landed citizens, the
abolition of chattel slavery, the rollback of European colonialism, the
rise of gender equality, the extension of civil rights to racial and ethnic
minorities, and growing compliance with international human rights
conventions on the part of governments worldwide. Moral revolutions
transpire in only a few generations, and sometimes even within a single
generation.

Increasingly, scholars across the humanities, social sciences, and
behavioral sciences are researching the causes of moral revolutions. Moral
revolutions have institutional and ideational dimensions. In moral
revolutions, institutions change in such a way that they forbid, permit,
and require new patterns of behavior. These institutional changes are
designed to bring the behavior of individuals into compliance with
“principled ideas”concerning moral rights, fairness, and justice. In
addition, moral revolutions involve changes in such principled moral ideas.

It will be the aim of this workshop to analyze the relationship between the
institutional and ideational dimensions of moral revolutions. Participants
in this workshop will present and discuss research focused on the following
questions: Do society-wide changes in moral attitudes ever cause
institutional changes? Or, does the direction of causality only run from
institutions to moral attitudes? What are the mechanisms through which
these causal relationships operate?

Participants in this workshop will debate various hypotheses concerning
moral revolutions. Special attention will be paid to the influence of moral
argumentation as compared with cultural, political, and economic factors in
explaining the institutional changes associated with moral revolutions.

Please direct any questions about the workshop to Andres Luco at
[email protected] .