Department Colloquium: Julia Markovits

“Moral Worth and the (Partial)
Relativism of Praise and Blame"
 

Abstract.  This talk will set out and explore some of the implications of a multi-faceted account of the moral praise- and blameworthiness of actions.  I will argue that, while there are elements of moral assessment that are absolute, there is also an element of moral assessment that is relative - indeed, (in a sense) both agent’s-group and appraiser’s-group relative.  I will show how this account can help us make sense of some otherwise puzzling features of our practice of moral judgment, including our intuition that some actions are supererogatory, and our intuition that normative ignorance can sometimes mitigate culpability.

Julia Markovits is an Associate Professor at Cornell University.