Gościnny wykład prof. Saula Smilansky’ego, 21.10, godz.11.30, s. 209

„Radical Moral Pluralism: a Proposal”

Radical Moral Pluralism (henceforth RMP) is the view that, at least sometimes, opposing conclusions may be reasonably seen as morally acceptable, in the same context. According to RMP, normative ethics is thus much more tolerant of diversity and of contrastive positions than has been thought; and moral goodness and rightness are, as it were, more expansive. I will present two very different test-cases that will help us to understand RMP, and show the intuitive appeal of this approach. One concerns the allocation of scarce medical resources, and the other the permissibility of adult sex-work. After taking up various objections, I will conclude by briefly noting a number of (surprisingly mostly positive) implications, if RMP is seen to be correct; as well as the needs for further exploration. RMP clearly adds philosophical, epistemic and pragmatic complexity, but opens up the possibility for a sophisticated, richer and more adequate picture of morality.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Saul Smilansky (D.Phil., Oxford) is a Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Haifa, Israel. He works primarily on normative and applied ethics, the free will problem, and meaning in life. Currently he is working on the idea of „Crazy Ethics”, a view of morality where frequently matters seem to be true (or at least plausible) yet are also absurd. He is the author of Free Will and Illusion (Oxford University Press 2000), 10 Moral Paradoxes (Blackwell 2007), and over one hundred papers in philosophical journals and edited collections.