Aiming for Moral Mediocrity
Most of us aim to be morally mediocre. That is, we aim to be about as morally good as our peers, not especially better, not especially worse. This mediocrity has two aspects. It is peer-relative rather than absolute, and it is middling rather than extreme. We look around us, notice how others are acting, then calibrate toward so-so. This is a somewhat bad way to be, but it’s not a terribly bad way to be. We ought to be somewhat disappointed in ourselves. A possibly helpful comparison is being mediocre in other things you care about intensely: being a mediocre parent, a mediocre friend, a mediocre teacher, a mediocre philosopher.
Date: 5 June 2017, 11:00 (Monday, 7th week, Trinity 2017)
Venue: Seminar Room 1
Speaker: Professor Eric Schwitzgebel (University of California Riverside)
Organising department: Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Organiser: Dr Guy Kahane (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: rachel.gaminiratne@philosophy.ox.ac.uk
Topics:
Booking required?: Not required
Booking url: https://bookwhen.com/uehiro
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Rachel Gaminiratne