[SydPhil] MQ Philosophy Talk: Tuesday, 22 May, 1-2pm, Blackshield Room: Melissa Merritt (UNSW)

[Michael Olson]

Character, Temperament, and Assent: Reconsidering Kant in the Light of Stoicism

Melissa Merritt (UNSW)

Date: 22 May
Time: 13:00-14:00
Venue: Blackshield Room, W3A (6 First Walk) 501*
All welcome

*Note the changing venues this semester

Abstract: Most recent work in Kantian moral psychology assumes that Kant is a psychological dualist in the Platonic-Aristotelian mould: there are rational and non-rational parts of the soul, which is what explains the experience of internal psychological conflict.  Relying on this assumption, Nancy Sherman complains that Kant lacks the resources to make good on his later claims that virtue involves properly cultivated emotions.  I reject the standard assumption by suggesting, first on broad systematic grounds, Kant’s commitment to psychological monism in the Socratic-Stoic tradition: we are rational through and through, though this rationality is not normally in a state of health or excellence.  However, I entertain more sympathetically her worries that Kant lacks the philosophical resources to make good on his later view that virtue involves properly educated emotions. I examine some details of Kant’s discussion of temperament and character in later works, and draw attention to its plausible relation to Stoic sources (and especially Cicero’s presentation of Stoic moral psychology in the Tusculan Disputations), in order to explain how such an account can emerge from Kant’s texts.
Contact: Adam Hochman (adam.hochman at mq.edu.au<mailto:adam.hochman at mq.edu.au>) or Mike Olson (michael.olson at mq.edu.au<mailto:michael.olson at mq.edu.au>)

A google calendar with details of other events in this series is available here<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/PCevC3Q8Z2FVWn0BSgnBAd?domain=michael-olson.com>.
---

Dr Michael Olson
Lecturer, Modern European Philosophy

Department of Philosophy
Level 2, The Australian Hearing Hub
16 University Avenue
Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia

T: +61 2 9850 6895<tel:%2B61%202%209850%206895>  |  arts.mq.edu.au<http://arts.mq.edu.au/> |  www.michael-olson.com<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/-RGyC4QZ1RFGRX3oUxvnIi?domain=michael-olson.com>


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