Articles by Andrew Sabl

I just received a call for papers through the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics list that might be of interest to Public Reason members.  As you’ll see, it’s encouraging submissions very soon (within a few days for best chance of acceptance).  (Update: originally I said I’d be posting two calls, but the second turned out not to be very relevant.)

Call for Papers

The 37th Conference on Value Inquiry “Liberty, Equality, and Business” will be held at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska 14-16 April 2011.  Broad participation is sought.  Papers and proposals for papers that address moral considerations such as liberty and equality and their interplay in business and society are particularly welcome.  Early Submission is strongly encouraged and advised.  Early notification of acceptance will begin February 1st.

Papers should be between 20-25 minutes reading time.    Papers may be practically or theoretically oriented.  Topics may be disciplinary and range over issues within a single field of value inquiry such as normative ethics, applied ethics, aesthetics, political theory, or economics.  Topics may be interdisciplinary and range over issues between two or more fields of value inquiry.  Topics may even be meta-disciplinary and range over purely conceptual issues important for fuller understanding of values in business and society at large.

Recent events in the financial sector have shown us again that shared values of trust, integrity, and fairness are essential for the well-being of society. Philosophers have always pointed this out: the virtue ethicist seeks excellence and a healthy society, the Thomist seeks the common good, the Hobbesian a social contract which will bring peace and stability, the Kantian pursues a just kingdom of Ends, the Utilitarian seeks the greatest good for the most, the Rawlsian seeks a society of justice and fairness. Right values are the foundation for a society which functions well. This year we especially encourage submissions which broadly pursue this theme from either a theoretical or applied perspective.

To submit a paper, an abstract, or a proposal, or for additional information contact: Dr. Andy Gustafson, College of Business Administration (BA 423), 2500 California Plaza, Creighton University, Omaha, NE  68178 e-mail:  andrewgustafson@creighton.edu  ph:402-669-9846 Conference Website:  http://wpmu.creighton.edu/business/cvi

I’ve received the announcement below through the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics’ list.  I assume it’s no secret and think it might be of interest to Public Reason members:

Theoretical and Applied Ethics (Revised Announcement)

The editors of a new undergraduate journal, Theoretical and Applied Ethics, are seeking referees for its editorial board. Chris Herrera, associate professor of philosophy at Montclair State University will be general editor of this journal, and Alexandra Perry, lecturer in philosophy at Bergen Community College will be managing editor. T&AE will be geared towards undergraduates, and each paper accepted for publication will have been blind-reviewed by a team of referees, all of whom hold doctorates in their respective specialties. Professor Herrera’s overall goal is to provide an online journal for high-quality papers in areas such as Medical Ethics, Business Ethics, and Ethical Theory. Current plans are for the journal to be published three times each year, with a Fall, Spring, and Summer issue.  The journal’s board of editors will be comprised of faculty from various universities. Suitable applicants will hold a Ph.D. in philosophy, and have an AOS in ethics, philosophy of law, or social philosophy. Interested applicants should send an abbreviated version of their C.V.s, along with a brief letter of introduction to TheoreticalAndAppliedEthics@gmail.com

I have no dog in this fight, as my lack of a Philosophy Ph.D. makes me ineligible on my face.  For that matter, I’m probably also ineligible when off my face.

I’ve written some fairly extensive comments on the podcast that Paul Gowder posted a few weeks ago (or, more precisely, on the written paper (.pdf)).  Since they’re several pages long, I’ve decided to link to them as a .pdf rather than taking up oodles of space in a web post. I do think the paper is very exciting, and I hope that these comments will spur further discussion either here or below Paul’s original post.

Anyway: here are the comments.

Hi all,

I just joined Public Reason (having met Simon at a conference) and am looking forward to participating.  I’ve already seen lots of terrific material, and realize that I should have joined long ago.

I have what may seem a strange problem.  I’ll be teaching an undergraduate lecture course in Political Ethics next Spring quarter, as I have in the past.  This is a conceptual rather than a practical course, it covers not bribes and whistleblowing, but the basic theoretical works relevant to political ethics issues (though we will treat a few actual cases).  We’ll be reading Pitkin on representation, Machiavelli’s Prince, Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation”–and a bit of moral philosophy on an introductory level: utilitarianism, deontology, Bernard Williams on integrity and personal projects and shooting one to save ten, that sort of thing.  While the course is nominally upper level, there are no prerequisites (UCLA’s bureaucracy won’t allow it), and UCLA has no core requirements in moral and political philosophy such that I can count on students’ knowing some.   Nor is this a course for philosophy (or political theory) majors.  The students are political science or public policy majors interested in the substantive issues, not in ethical theory.

My problem is Kant.  When I’ve taught the course in the past, I’ve tried teaching Kant through the Grounding and a few of the writings on lying, but it hasn’t worked out.  The students find my lectures clear; they like Korsgaard on the right to lie; they get the murderer at the door stuff and enjoy debating it–but the Grounding is just over their head.  Spending two weeks on it (out of ten) doesn’t help: that’s of course not enough time, and it’s not the right students, and they’re just not able to take it in.  But I don’t really know how else to teach Kantianism.  “Theory and Practice” is lovely but deceptively allusive and not on the main topics of deontology; the same is true in spades of “Towards Perpetual Peace.”

I’d welcome any suggestions: an unknown piece of Kant (e.g. a public lecture) that I’m not familiar with?  (If it’s in German only and not too long, fine: I’ll happily translate for the class and with luck for publication in Teaching Ethics or something.)  A standard introductory piece on Kantianism, with a few key quotations and some down-to-earth yet serious explication?

In this I may be handicapped by never having taken an introductory ethics course myself.  I took a whole course on the First Critique and read lots of Kant’s (and others’) ethical works in advanced-undergraduate and graduate seminars, but never had to learn as an undergraduate what I’m now supposed to convey.  (The famous Justice class at Harvard doesn’t count: I’m looking to convey a bit more than is expected in that entertaining but not egregiously substantive course.)

To some extent, Mill’s Utilitarianism, while nowhere as baffling as Kant, is also hard to teach in such a context, and I’d welcome suggestions for substitutes or supplements to that too.

Many thanks in advance,

Andy.