The Source of Morality
Some say that morality is created by and for humans beings—its origins and authority are relative to the culture we live in. Others are squeamish about moral relativism and instead try to identify some objective basis for morality—science, human nature, or God. This Focus on the Humanities talk will survey these views and reveal the serious problems that beset them all. In the face of such problems, it may be tempting to regard morality as nothing more than a comforting fiction. Professor Russ Shafer-Landau urges us to resist this diagnosis, offering an alternative that can vindicate the objectivity of morality.
Russ Shafer-Landau is Elliott R. Sober Professor of Philosophy. He has taught at the University of Kansas, UC-Berkeley, UNC-Chapel Hill, and, for more than two decades, UW-Madison. He is the author of six books, all with Oxford University Press. He is Editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Director of the Marc Sanders Prize in Metaethics, and has served as President of the American Philosophical Association.