2011 Annual Uehiro Lectures (hosted by Oxford Uehiro Centre)

Lecture 1, "Robust demands and the need for virtue"

Date and time: 2.30–4.30 pm, Wednesday 1st June

Venue: Gulbenkian Lecture Theatre, St Cross Building, Manor Road, Oxford OX1 3UL.

Abstract: My loyalty or fidelity or honesty means that I can be relied upon to display a concern for your interests across a range of possible scenarios, not just in actual or probable circumstances. But the good constituted by this robust concern materializes as a result of my virtuous dispositions, not just as a result of what I do. And so virtue is a way of making good, not just an aid to doing good; it creates value in its own right.

Bio: Philip Pettit is the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University, where he has taught political theory and philosophy since 2002. He was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009, and honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2010; he is also a fellow of the Australian academies in Humanities and Social Sciences. Pettit holds honorary professorships in Philosophy at Sydney University and Queen's University, Belfast. In 2010 he won a Guggenheim fellowship and is spending 2010-11 as a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral and Social Sciences at Stanford University. Pettit is one of the world‘s leading authors in moral and political theory, and has also made important contributions to issues in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics. His work has also been an important influence on the policies of the current Spanish government.

Further details: All are welcome and no booking required. For more information, please contact: deborah.sheehan@philosophy.ox.ac.uk