Ethical Theory Review

Humanists argue that there is something special about human beings and that to live well we must grow up, overcome our childish and brutish temptations, and become fully human.  Secular Enlightenment humanists think this is something human beings can and should try to pull off on their own – through personal and collective human efforts.  Religious Humanists raise worries about this secular program and emphasize the need for humility and divine agency or assistance.

I interview Jennifer Herdt (Yale Divinity School) about her new book, Forming Humanity, which explores what we can learn from German Enlightenment intellectuals and their debates about these issues.

Interview with David McPherson, Associate Professor  at Creighton University.  We discuss his new book, Virtue and Meaning, which develops and defends a new theory of human nature – the human being as the meaning seeking creature – and explores its implications for ethical theory.  We discuss David's criticism of Aristotelian Naturalists such as Foot, Hursthouse, and MacIntyre, his alternative account of moral virtue and the good life,  and his view that Aristotelian moral philosophers need to develop accounts of the cosmic meaning of human life and of human spirituality.