MIGHT WORKSHOP
9-10 SEPTEMBER 2022
UNIVERZITA PARDUBICE
‘HERE I STAND, I CAN DO NO OTHER; OR CAN I?’ ON THE REALITY OF MORAL IMPOSSIBILITY
The workshop explores the moral phenomena that fall under the umbrella category of ‘moral impossibility’: where something appears outside the scope of what we can think, imagine, or do, for reasons that are not empirical but moral. The phenomenon includes Bernard Williams’s ‘moral incapacity’, Raimond Gaita’s ‘unthinkable’, the ethical dimension of Cora Diamond’s ‘difficulty of reality’, and non-fictional interpretations of ‘imaginative resistance’. In other cases, when the impossibility is due to the felt necessity of one specific possibility, the phenomenon is connected to what is known as ‘practical necessity’ – its flip side, as it were.
Our question is: when we feel we cannot think, do, or imagine something because of a moral hurdle, a kind of moral limit, are we just talking about an extreme form of unwillingness, a rhetorical exaggeration of ‘ought not’, or is there a difference in kind? Does a real moral impossibility, distinct from not willing, or from lacking imagination or understanding, exist? Answering these questions will also help understand the nature of moral impossibilities, their causes, and their significance.
The workshop, held over two days at the University of Pardubice, gathers focused papers with plenty of time for discussion, in order to allow for an in-depth exploration of this little acknowledged, but very important, dimension of the moral life.
Venue:*
Namesti Čs. Legii
room 01033
Univerzita Pardubice
*While this is principally an in-person event, it will be possible for some attendees to join the workshop online. Please register by sending an email to silvia.capriogliopanizza@upce.cz
PROGRAMME
Friday 9th September
10 Welcome and coffee
10.30-12 Sophie-Grace Chappell (Open University) “Inwardness in Ethics”
Lunch break
14-15.30 Sami Pihlström (University of Helsinki) “Transcendental" Moral Unthinkability vs. Deep Moral Disagreement” (online)
Coffee
16-17.30 Katharina Bauer (Erasmus University Rotterdam) “Here I stand… - On practical necessity, moral impossibility and personal identity”
Drinks and Dinner
Saturday 10th September
9.30 – 11 Evgenia Mylonaki (Patras University) "Moral Experience and Moral Impossiblity"
11.30 – 13 Silvia Caprioglio Panizza (Centre for Ethics) “Changing Moral Incapacities in Context”
Conclusions and Lunch