[SydPhil] Tyler Paytas ACU Philosophy Seminar

[Stephen Matthews]

ACU Philosophy seminar: Tyler Paytas

This week - Friday July 28, 2.30pm - 4 pm
Tyler will speak from ACU's Melbourne campus, 250 Victoria Parade East Melbourne  (Level 4, 460.4.280 (Mel 4.28Vd))

Title:  Be Not Afraid: Reclassifying Fear as Vice

Abstract:  Most contemporary virtue theorists hold that fear is neither virtue nor vice--it is a natural response, and what matters is one’s ability to surmount it when necessary. I challenge this common view by arguing, as the Stoics did, that fear is a vice. Although prototypical vices are traits that reflect selfish or malevolent values, some traits are vicious because they make it difficult to implement one’s values. Fear is a structural vice because it involves an intrinsically undesirable severance between one’s motivational states and one’s normative judgements. States and dispositions that undermine agency in this way are not only disvaluable in themselves, they also have overall bad effects. Hence, to the extent that we can diminish or eliminate our fearfulness through deliberate effort, we ought to do so. And insofar as we fail in this regard, we possess a structural deficiency that counts against our excellence as human agents.


As usual this presentation will be video-conferenced to other campuses:


Brisbane: 200.2.03 (BRI_xAC.22 Vd)
Strathfield: 600.1.02 VC (STR_xE2.45 Vd)
Ballarat: 100.1.03 (BAL_xCB1.103 Vd)
Canberra: 302.2.13 (CAN_xS.G.1.10 Vd)

North Sydney: Tenison Woods House, 8-20 Napier St. Level 12. Vidconference room.


ALL WELCOME!

Enquiries: Steve Matthews (stephen.matthews at acu.edu.au)

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