[SydPhil] Antti Kauppinen at Notre Dame Australia

[Timothy Smartt]

The Institute for Ethics & Society at The University of Notre Dame Australia is pleased to host a talk from Professor Antti Kauppinen (University of Helsinki) on Thursday 26 February, 3:30pm-5:00pm (Sydney time).

The talk will be held in person on UNDA’s Sydney campus, but remote participation is also available. All welcome.


Title: Sources of Epistemic Normativity


Abstract: Why should we comply with epistemic norms? Many argue it is because doing so promotes or realises some kind of value, either epistemic or non-epistemic. I argue no answer of this type can be successful, for reasons that trace back to post-Medieval discussion about natural law. No value, no matter how great, will by itself ground an obligation to comply with a norm. To show that there are genuine epistemic norms requires showing that we are accountable to someone for failing to comply. This paper proposes a kind of transcendental argument, building on work from Stephen Darwall (2006), to the effect that we are ultimately accountable to ourselves and each other, which grounds the authoritativeness of epistemic norms.


In person participation: Moorgate Room, 10 Grafton St, Chippendale, The University of Notre Dame Australia

Online participation: please email Tim Smartt (timothy.smartt at nd.edu.au) for Microsoft Teams link.

The seminar is the first in the 2026 Notre Dame Ethics + Epistemology Talks — a planned series of talks exploring the connections between ethics and epistemology.

Inquiries: Tim Smartt (timothy.smartt at nd.edu.au)



Dr Tim Smartt

Senior Research Fellow

Institute for Ethics & Society

University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney

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