International ethics conference: Reasons and Virtues

The theme of this ethics conference is reasons and virtues (See topics listed below). At this early stage registrations are not being taken. A call for papers will go out shortly and the contact address is [email protected]. Among speakers already secured are Robert Audi, Garrett Cullity, Rosalind Hursthouse, Karen Jones, Jeanette Kennett, Nicholas Southwood, and Christine Swanton.

The conference will take place on the Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) campus of the Australian Catholic University. More housekeeping details will be sent out in the new year.

The focus of this conference is Reasons and Virtues. A list of central topics includes:

·        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.