Collective Moral and Intellectual Virtues

About

Collectives and other groups have the capacity to do more than any of their individual members could accomplish alone. Groups can achieve great accomplishments and benefits, but they can also commit evil at scale. Likewise, through the division of cognitive labor and with the support of technologies of communication and inference, collectives can learn things that no individual could achieve in a lifetime. However, collectives can also spread misinformation, disinformation, unwarranted conspiracy theories, and propaganda at hitherto-unimagined speed and scale.

This course addresses both the promise and the peril that attend our increasingly connected, global community. It offers participants the chance to think through the ethical difficulties of existence within contemporary communities and consider how to construct those communities in ways that enable us to flourish together as moral, epistemic, and political agents. We will begin with an introduction to individual virtue theory (both ethical and epistemic), then expand to a consideration of collective virtue theory.

Limited number of tuition waivers and scholarships are available.

Course leader

Mark Alfano (Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University)

Target group

- Graduate students (masters, PhD) through mid-career researchers with demonstrated interest in virtue ethics and/or virtue epistemology
- Global geography, including not only the usual suspects of Europe and North America but also Asia, Africa, South America, and Oceania

Fee info