Our Fall Colloquia series comes to a close on Friday 27 November with a talk and Q&A session by our very own Sylvia Berryman. Her topic: “Aristotle’s Metaethics…and other historical monstrosities.”
Abstract: The ‘back to Aristotle’ movement in contemporary ethics, initiated by G.E.M. Anscombe, frequently supposes that Aristotle looks to our biological nature for guidance in ethics. I argue that the evidence for this reading of Aristotle is thin, and that there is much better support for the notion that he is a kind of constructivist in ethics.
About the Speaker: Professor Berryman has written on the intersections between ancient Greek natural philosophy and natural sciences, including mechanics, medicine, optics, physics and theory of mixture. Although she has written on topics ranging over the entire period of Greek antiquity, many of her research papers concern the role of Hellenistic science on natural philosophy, especially that of the Aristotelian school. Recently, she has been writing on the metaethical foundations of Aristotle’s ethics, especially the role of naturalism in his thought, and the recent situationist critique of virtue ethics.
Interested in attending this event? Please e-mail phil.ugradengagement@ubc.ca for the Zoom link.