About this Event
Title:
Social Conventions as Sui Generis.
Abstract:
Others’ expectations of our behavior, and our expectations of theirs, frequently involve social conventions: the right way to queue for a bus, how to behave in a concert audience, how to conduct oneself in the presence of a distinguished guest, the written and unwritten rules of professional sports. Furthermore, our expectations seem reasonable: these social conventions do appear to exert a normative pull. But why? In this talk, I argue for the suggestion that social conventions are normatively significant because they are, in fact, the social conventions in which we participate. I canvass and reject an assimilationist alternative, according to which social conventions are significant because they are morally significant. Instead, I hold that the normativity of social conventions is direct.
Speaker bio:
Dale Dorsey is Professor of Moral Philosophy and Tutorial Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford. He works broadly in ethics, including metaethics and the history of ethics.
Location:
Ante Room SW1.17 Somerset House East Wing, Strand Campus, King's College London
Time:
17:00-19:00
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
SW1.17, Somerset House East Wing, Strand, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
