“Thomas Reid on the Moral Faculty and the Truth of Moral Judgment”
Freedom Center Colloquium Series
On February 28th, Keith Lehrer will be giving a talk entitled, “Thomas Reid on the Moral Faculty and the Truth of Moral Judgment,” as part of the Freedom Center Colloquium Series. Keith is a Regents Professor of Philosophy (Emeritus) here at the University of Arizona. Here is an abstract for the talk:
“Reid argued that we have a moral faculty that yields moral judgment of an action in response to how we conceive of it. His theory allows us to explain how people who have the same moral faculty, an innate capacity, may differ in moral judgments. His nominalism allows him to argue that moral judgments are objectively true in the same way that perceptual judgments of color are objectively true without assuming the existence of moral properties or color properties. The objective bases are individual qualities of experience. Though the moral faculty is an innate capacity, our moral conceptions are not innate ideas but rather develop from relative and obscure conceptions to clear and distinct ones governed by moral principles. Our faculties are governed by first principles, Reid argued, and are tuned to truth, though not infallible. They are trustworthy and not fallacious in in discerning truth from error.”
Please join us in the Kendrick Room at the Freedom Center for Keith’s talk!
