Title:

Social Conventions as Sui Generis.

Abstract:

Others’ expectations of our behaviour, and our expectations of theirs, frequently involve social conventions: the right way to queue for a bus, how to behave in a concert audience, how to conduct oneself in the presence of a distinguished guest, the written and unwritten rules of professional sports. Furthermore, our expectations seem reasonable: these social conventions do appear to exert a normative pull. But why? In this talk, I argue for the suggestion that social conventions are normatively significant because they are, in fact, the social conventions in which we participate. I canvass and reject an assimilationist alternative, according to which social conventions are significant because they are morally significant. Instead, I hold that the normativity of social conventions is direct.

Speaker bio:

Dale Dorsey is Professor of Moral Philosophy and Tutorial Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford.  He works broadly in ethics, including metaethics and the history of ethics.

Location:

Ante Room SW1.17 Somerset House East Wing, Strand Campus, King's College London

Time: 

17:00-19:00