Dear all,
This Thursday (4 Feb) at the Serious Metaphysics Group we will have Max Hayward (Columbia), who will be presenting 'Practical Reason, Sympathy, and Reactive Attitudes' (abstract below). The talk will be at 1.00-2.30pm, at the Philosophy Faculty Board Room. You are welcome to bring along lunch if you are arriving from another talk/lecture beforehand. For the rest of the Lent term card please have a look at the website: http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/seminars-phil/SMG Best wishes, Li Li -- ABSTRACT My paper has three aims. First, I defend, in its most radical form, Hume's scepticism about practical reason, as it applies to purely prudential or self-regarding matters. It is not always irrational to discount the future, to be inconstant in one's preferences, to have incompatible desires, to not pursue the means to one's ends, or to fail to maximise one's own good. Second, I explain how our response to the imprudent or practically irrational agent should be understood as an expression of frustrated sympathy, rather than a genuine judgement about Reason. We judge these people because we cannot imaginatively identify with the desiderative and intentional patterns they instantiate, and this is frustrating. Third, compared to the standard cognitive view, I argue the sentimentalist theory better explains the nature of our criticism of the "irrational," and, by portraying imprudence as a cause of upset to other people, provides a better normative basis for being "rational." -- Li Li Tan PhD (Probationary) in Philosophy St Catharine's College _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
