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Conference Announcement Theme: Normativity and Praxis Subtitle: Moral Universalism and Non-ideal Normativity Type: International Conference Institution: Institue of Philosophy and Center for the Theory and Philosophy of Human Rights, University of Lodz Ethics Commission, Polish Academy of Sciences Łódź Branch Location: Łódź (Poland) Date: 22.–23.10.2015 __________________________________________________ The conference “Normativity & Praxis: Moral Universalism and Non-ideal Normativity” covers two topics. The first one deals with the issue of moral universalism. The second one concerns Christoph Horn’s thesis that Immanuel Kant radically departs from his own idea of the absolute primacy of the principle of universalization (the categorical imperative) in his philosophy of law, state and politics. The second part of the conference will be held mainly in German (Christoph Horn presented his theses in his book Nichtideale Normativität. Ein neuer Blick auf Kants politische Philosophie, Frankfurt am Main, 2014). The main tenet of moral universalism is that morality is universally valid, i.e., morality consists in universal moral principles which prescribe the same moral obligations for everyone or ascribe the same rights for everyone regardless of the contingencies of human condition (such as for example cultural, racial, religious and sexual differences). The first conceptualization of the fundamental moral principle which allows formulating universal moral prescriptions (rules of action or moral judgments) was the Golden Rule. The familiar version of it says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The slightly different formulation of the Golden Rule can be found in virtually all ethical and religious traditions. Another formulation of that fundamental, universal principle of morality was Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative. The so-called formula of universal law says, “Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.” Thought the CI is sometimes confused with the Golden Rule, Kant radically departs from that meaning of it. He does not make the content of moral prescriptions dependent on the agent’s desires or consent like it was in the case of the Golden Rule. He seeks justification of moral maxims in the formal aspect of moral law, i.e., in its universality. Despite the criticism, the Kantian idea of universalizability – since its first formulation in the „Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals” – has been elaborated by such philosophers as John Rawls or Onora O’Neill. On the other hand the principle of universalizability has been reformulated by discourse ethics of Jürgen Habermas and Karl Otto-Apel. Discourse ethics, like Kant’s ethics, is also deontological, cognitivist and universal, but it grounds moral norms rather in communication (communicative rationality) than in subjectivity. The other way of conceptualization of the idea of universalization comes from the consequentialism camp in ethics. Marcus G. Singer in his book „Generalization in Ethics” formulated and defended „the generalization argument”. It considers the consequences of everyone’s acting in the same way. If they were unacceptable, then no one ought to act in that way. The generalization argument explores the similar ideas to Kantian’s, but it differs considerably from the CI. On the other hand Richard M. Hare’s universal prescriptivism seems to bear more resemblance to Kant’s idea of universalizability. According to Hare an act is morally justified if and only if the maxim of that act could be a universal rule of conduct and it would be accepted as such by the agent. However Hare differently conceptualizes the idea of universalizability than exponents of deontological ethics and draws different conclusions from it. The task of the conference is to discuss about strengths and weaknesses of these different conceptualisations of the universalisation principle. The keynote speakers are: Prof. Dr. Rainer Adolphi, Technische Universität Berlin Prof. Dr. Christoph Horn, Universität Bonn Prof. Dr. Andrzej M. Kaniowski, University of Lodz Dr. Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, University of Lodz Prof. Dr. Georg Lohmann, Universität Magdeburg Prof. Dr. Ewa Nowak, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Contact: Dr Krzysztof Kędziora ul. Kopcińskiego 16/18, 90-232 Łódź Poland Email: [email protected] Web: http://normativityandpraxis.uni.lodz.pl __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
