Listen to these Lectures Online
Flash Player Required
Download
and Listen
MP3 Format: Lecture One, Lecture Two, Lecture Three, Seminar & Discussion
About the Lectures
Distinguished moral philosopher Derek Parfit will deliver the 2002-2003 Tanner Lectures. Parfit is a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College,
Oxford, and Member of the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University,
United Kingdom. Parfit will speak on "Kant's Formula of Ends-in-Themselves"
on Monday, November 4, and "Kant's Formula of Universal Law"
on Tuesday, November 5, and "Contractualism" on Wednesday,
November 6. All lectures will take place from 4:10 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
in the Toll Room of the Alumni House, located on the Berkeley campus.
Following his lectures, Parfit will participate in a discussion seminar
on Thursday, November 7. The seminar will take place from 4:10 p.m.
to 6:30 p.m. in the Toll Room of the Alumni House, located on the Berkeley
campus.
Commentators for the series will be renowned scholars Allen W. Wood,
Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor, Department of Philosophy,
Stanford University; Susan Wolf, Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor
of Philosophy, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and
Thomas Scanlon, Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy,
and Civil Polity, Department of Philosophy, Harvard University.
The lectures and the seminar are free and open to the public.
Lecture Schedule
Lecture One: Kant's Formula of Ends-in-Themselves
Monday, November 4, 2002
4:10 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Toll Room, Alumni House
With commentary by Allen W. Wood
Lecture Two: Kant's Formula of Universal Law
Tuesday, November 5, 2002
4:10 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Toll Room, Alumni House
With commentary by Susan Wolf
Lecture Three: Contractualism
Wednesday, November 6, 2002
4:10 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Toll Room, Alumni House
With commentary by Thomas Scanlon
Seminar and Discussion
Thursday, November 7, 2002
4:10 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Toll Room, Alumni House
With commentary by Allen W. Wood, Susan Wolf, and Thomas Scanlon.
About Derek Parfit
Derek Parfit has made major contributions to our understanding of personal
identity, philosophy of the mind, and ethics. He is thought to be one
of the most important moral philosophers of the past century. His most
recognized book is Reasons and Persons (1984), in which he challenges
some of our most profound beliefs about morality, rationality, and personal
identity.
Born in 1942, Parfit attended Oxford University and received his B.A.
in 1964. He was awarded a Harkness Fellowship from Columbia University
in 1965. Since 1967, Parfit has been a Fellow, and more recently a Senior
Research Fellow, of All Souls College, Oxford. He has also served as
a visiting professor at Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Colorado.
Presently, Parfit regularly teaches at New York University, Harvard
University, and All Souls College, Oxford. Parfit is a Fellow of several
learned societies including the British Academy and the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences.
Parfit has published many academic articles including: “Personal
Identity” (1971); “Overpopulation and the Quality of Life”
(1986); “The Unimportance of Identity” (1995); and “Equality
and Priority” (1997). He has several books in progress with the
working titles: “Rediscovering Reasons;” “The Metaphysics
of the Self;” and “On What Matters.”
About the Commentators
Allen W. Wood
Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor, Department of Philosophy,
Stanford University
Allen W. Wood is a leading thinker regarding issues of ethics, social
and political philosophy, and the philosophy of religion. His research
and interests center on the history of modern philosophy (especially
German philosophy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries).
Wood’s books include: Kant's Moral Religion (1970), Kant's Rational
Theology (1978), Hegel’s Ethical Thought (1990), and Kant's Ethical
Thought (1999). He has also edited and translated many of the numerous
writings of Immanuel Kant.
Wood received his B. A. in Literature and Philosophy in 1964 from Reed
College and his M. A. in Philosophy in 1966 and his Ph. D. in Philosophy
in 1968 from Yale University. Prior to moving to Stanford, he held professorships
in Philosophy at Cornell University, the University of Michigan, the
University of California at San Diego, and Yale University. Wood has
taught at Stanford University since 1999.
Susan Wolf
Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy,
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Susan Wolf is a notable scholar in the areas of moral theory and the
philosophy of the mind. Her views are considered original, despite the
fact that the theories she surveys are familiar. Wolf’s current
research focuses on the relations among happiness, morality, and meaningfulness
in life.
Wolf is the author of Freedom Within Reason (1990), a book on free
will and moral responsibility. She has written numerous publications
on ethics and the philosophy of mind, including: “Morality and
Partiality,” “Two Levels of Pluralism,” “Self-Interest
and Interest in Selves,” and “Asymmetrical Freedom.”
Wolf received her B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy from Yale, and
her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton. She taught at Harvard, the University
of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University before taking her current
position at the University of North Carolina. She has held visiting
appointments at the Australian National University and at the University
of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and has held fellowships from the American
Council of Learned Societies, the American Association of University
Women, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Thomas Scanlon
Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity,
Department of Philosophy, Harvard University
Thomas Scanlon is an important figure in the field of moral and political
philosophy. He has published works on freedom of expression, the nature
of rights, conceptions of welfare, and theories of justice, as well
as on foundational questions in moral theory. And his courses have dealt
with issues of equality and recent ethical theory.
Scanlon is best known for his book, What We Owe to Each Other, in which
he supports his contractualistic views. It was published by Harvard
University Press in 1998. Other recent publications include “The
Difficulty of Tolerance” (1996) and “Intention and Permissibility
I” (2000).
Thomas Scanlon received his B.A. from Princeton in 1962 and his Ph.D.
from Harvard in 1968. In between, he studied for a year at Oxford as
a Fulbright Fellow. He taught at Princeton from 1966 to 1984 and has
taught at Harvard since then. Scanlon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship
in 1993.
