Appel à contributions
Atelier du 10 & 11 Février 2018 / Université Concordia
Call for Abstracts: Two-Day Workshop on
VIRTUE AND MORAL REASONING UNDER OPPRESSIVE SOCIAL CONDITIONS
Concordia University in Montreal, February 10-11, 2018
KEYNOTES BY: Charlotte Witt (U New Hampshire), Eric Wiland (U Missouri, St. Louis), Elijah Milgram
(U Utah), and Macalester Bell (Bryn Mawr College).
TOPIC
How should we think about virtue and practical rationality under oppressive conditions? Practical
rationality and virtues are often understood in terms of ideals, such as: fully flourishing agents, ideal
observers, or reasoners who are not subject to influences of sensibility. It is unclear, however, whether
such ideals are helpful for us, non-ideal agents when facing real-life decisions in a non-ideal world.
One well-known problem for virtue theories here is that a less than fully virtuous agent shouldn’t
always do what a fully virtuous agent would do in her situation. Must we perhaps turn to conceptions
such as care, social practices, spheres of virtues, bounded rationality, moral advice or the like to
determine the role of virtues and rationality under non-ideal social and political conditions?
Traditionally, virtues are seen as closely related to practical rationality (see Aristotle, Kant, Foot).
Some have claimed, however, that certain character traits —for instance an unwillingness to compromise—
count as virtues in the context of systemic injustice but not in other contexts. If what counts as
a virtue depends on the political circumstances, then what counts as practically rational will probably
depend on the same factors. But shouldn’t rationality be the same for everyone? Can rationality
require us to do what is less than fully rational if what would be fully rational is beyond reach?
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS include, but are not limited to: How can ideals of complete virtue or
rationality be relevant for non-ideal agents in non-ideal social circumstances? What does it mean for
oppressed people to be virtuous and rational? How do social structures make it difficult to become
virtuous or rational? Are virtues or rationality relative to social and political contexts? What resources
does virtue ethics offer to theorize non-ideal political conditions? Are some virtues essentially geared
towards non-ideal social relations? What role should moral advice, testimony and consciousnessraising
play in situations of oppression? How should we reason together about policies when our
practical rationality is impaired?
SUBMISSION RULES
We welcome submissions from a wide range of philosophical perspectives. Women and members of
underrepresented groups are particularly encouraged to apply.
Please submit an anonymized abstract (500-1000 words; pdf, doc, or docx) through EasyChair at:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vprm2017. Selection will be via blind review.
DEADLINE: September 30, 2017.
NOTIFICATION BY: October 30, 2017.
QUESTIONS?
A website for the workshop will be available soon at: https://sites.google.com/site/vprm2017/. For
other questions, please email one of the organizers: Ulf Hlobil (ulf.hlobil@concordia.ca) or Katharina
Nieswandt (katharina.nieswandt@concordia.ca).