Invitation to the lecture: Moral Duties towards Past-Selves
The Institute of Philosophy SAS, v.v.i. invites you to the webinar Moral Duties towards Past-Selves, which will take place on 9 April 2024 at 01:30 pm. The speakers will be Vincent Grandjean (University of Zurich) and Agnès Baehni (University of Geneva). Martin Muránsky (Head of the Department of Normativity and Human Rights Research, Institute of Philosophy SAS, v.v.i.) will give the opening remarks. The event will be chaired by Tomáš Kollárik (Department of Normativity and Human Rights Research, Institute of Philosophy SAS, v.v.i.)
You can also attend the event in the conference room of the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, room 94.
Short abstract
The lecture explores the implications of two widely accepted beliefs:
- we have moral duties towards persons who are no longer present,
- we have moral duties towards ourselves.
Specifically, our inquiry centers on moral duties towards our past-selves. We begin by addressing various objections challenging the viability of such duties and subsequently present two arguments supporting their plausibility. These arguments draw from hypothetical time-travel scenarios and the arbitrary exclusion of past-selves from the moral framework. In conclusion, we argue that recognizing moral duties to our past-selves is paradoxically crucial for combating moral egocentrism in its temporal dimension.
Event supported by VEGA2/0118/24 "The social nature of normativity as a basis for explaining the relationship between individual and collective autonomy".
The lecture will be held in English.
Prepared by: Tomáš Kollárik, Department of Normativity and Human Rights Research, Institute of Philosophy SAS, v. v. i.
Photo: unsplash.com/Aron Visuals