21 Nov
2013
21 Nov
'13
7:42 a.m.
The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
(as part of its Departmental Colloquium series)
by
Saul Smilansky (University of Haifa)
on
`The Moral Evaluation of Past Tragedies: A New Puzzle`
Tuesday, 26 November, 2013, 5.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
The past is full of terrible tragedies, including slavery, World War I, and the
Holocaust. Morality would clearly appear to support the claim that it would have been
preferable for the victims of those calamities to have lived free and peaceful lives. And
yet, a Zeno-like puzzle or even a paradox appears to be lurking here. Moral evaluation can
be either personal or impersonal, yet neither one of these two perspectives nor any other
prevalent moral evaluation of events appears to yield the morally expected conclusion. To
the best of my knowledge, this puzzle has not been discussed before.