We are an international monthly-assembling online reading group co-hosted by the CFCUL and the Ethics and Political Theory Lab of the IFILNOVA.
Our focus is on scientific approaches to the study of Ethics (such as theories of moral evolution, holocultural moral psychology, behavioural game theory, inter alia), as well as on the import of this research to metanormativity (such as topics of evolutionary ethics, experimental philosophy, inter alia) and to first-order normative ethics & even policy (such as the evo-conservativism vs. evo-liberalism debate, bioethics, empirical ethics, inter alia).
Each subsequent reading is agreed upon by the participants and should be a recent publication or mature work-in-progress paper reflecting the inter- or trans-disciplinary nature of the topics above-mentioned.
The authors of the selected papers are invited to present them at the start of the session, ahead of the debate properly said.
We welcome participants from all disciplines and all stages of their careers to join us.
The group meets online on Zoom. If you are interested in joining our group or have any other queries, please, send an e-mail titled “[The Sciences of Ethics and Political Philosophy]” to joaopinheiro [at] hotmail [.] com (João Pinheiro, organizer), and you will be added to our mailing list.
Meetings 2024
15/05/2024 (14:00, Lisbon time). Kish Bar-On, Kati & Lamm, Ehud; [2023] «The interplay of social identity and norm psychology in the evolution of human groups», Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B:37820210412, http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0412 [With the confirmed presence of the first author.]
11/04/2024 (14:00, Lisbon time). Burkart, Judith M., K. Brügger, Rahel, van Schaik, Carel P.; [2018] «Evolutionary Origins of Morality: Insights From Non-human Primates», Frontiers in Sociology, Evolutionary Sociology and Biosociology, 3:17:1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2018.00017 [With the confirmed presence of the first author.]
13/03/2024 (14:15, Lisbon time). Isserow, Jessica; [2023] «Naturalizing Moral Naturalism», Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, 25(3):608-641. https://doi.org/10.26556/jesp.v25i3.2429 [With the confirmed presence of the author.]
15/02/2024 (14:00, Lisbon time). Levine, Sydney, et al.; [under revision in BBS] «Resource-rational contractualism: A triple theory of moral cognition», PsyArXiv Preprint: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/p48t7 [With the confirmed presence of the first author.]
Meetings 2023
14/03/2023 (14:00 Lisbon time).Cofnas, Nathan; [2022] «How Gene–Culture Coevolution can—but Probably did not—Track Mind-Independent Moral Truth», The Philosophical Quarterly, pqac047, https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqac047.
18/04/2023 (15:00 Lisbon time). Levy, Arnon; [2018] «Evolutionary models and the normative significance of stability», Biology & Philosophy, 33(33), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-018-9643-1. [With the confirmed presence of the author.]
16/05/2023 (14:00, Lisbon time). Kerr, William; [2019] «The descent of nations: social evolutionary theory, modernism and ethno-symbolism», Nations and Nationalism, Journal of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism, 25(1):104–123, https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12426 [With the confirmed presence of the author.]
14/06/2023 (11:00, Lisbon time). Hopster, Jeroen & Klenk, Michael; [2020] «Why Metaethics Needs Empirical Moral Psychology», Critica 52(155):27-54, https://doi.org/10.22201/iifs.18704905e.2020.1193. [With the confirmed presence of the first author.]
18/07/2023 (14:00, Lisbon time). Westra, Evan & Andrews, Kristin; [2022] «A pluralistic framework for the psychology of norms», Biology & Philosophy, 37(40), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-022-09871-0 [With the confirmed presence of the first author.]
12/09/2023 (14:00, Lisbon time). Partington, Scott, Nichols, Shaun, & Kushnir, Tamar; [2023] «Rational learners and parochial norms», Cognition, 233(105366):1-13.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105366 [With the confirmed presence of the first author.]
11/10/2023 (14:00, Lisbon time). Jones, Doug; [2017] «Kin selection and ethnic group selection», Evolution and Human Behavior, 39(1):9-18. ttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.08.004
13/11/2023 (14:00, Lisbon time). Turchin, Peter et al.; [2022] «Disentangling the evolutionary drivers of social complexity: A comprehensive test of hypotheses», Science Advances, 8(25):eabn3517. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn3517 [With the confirmed presence of the first author.]
11/12/2023 (14:00, Lisbon time). Bloomfield, Paul; [2023] «Function, Fitness, Flourishing» (pp.264-292), in Paul Bloomfield & David Copp (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Moral Realism, New York: Oxford University Press. [With the confirmed presence of the author.]