On Vice: Political Ethics and Moral Conflict

Amid widespread acts of political manipulation and public deception, outrageous corporate scandals, as well as the protests, demonstrations and riots which have erupted across the globe in recent months, we live at a time of heightened concern for the ethical fabric of society. These sorts of concerns have traditionally formed the core subject matter of political theory, and yet they also seem to cast doubt on the intellectual resources at our disposal to cope with this new sense of ethical fragility. The rich tradition of political and philosophical thought on the virtues and its general preoccupation with moral innocence, goodness, and perfectibility seems out of joint in a time marked more by villainy, conflict and vice.

The primary aim of this small-scale two-day workshop is to explore the idea of political morality and civic ethics in a distinctive way: through the lens of vice. The workshop will emphasise the moral and political nuances associated with the concept of vice and encourage collaborative thinking on the nature of vice, its relationship to virtue, its place in modern life and its potential role in the explication and rehabilitation of political ethics in an age of conflict.

Contact: Dr Derek Edyvane ([email protected]) and Demetris Tillyris ([email protected]).