CFCP Public Lecture

The 2025 CFCP Public Lecture will be delivered by Stephen Darwall, the Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. Darwall is the author of over 150 articles and books in moral philosophy ranging over such topics as respect, accountability, authority, obligation, reason, agency, well-being, and the history of moral philosophy. Most recently, he is the author of The Heart and Its Attitudes, an in-depth exploration of love, trust, gratitude, and other forms of heartfelt connection - as well as their corresponding forms of disconnection. We are delighted to have Darwall deliver our 7th CFCP Public Lecture.

Abstract

I argue that human beings have two kinds of intrinsic human value.  The more familiar kind, Kantian dignity, means that we are entitled to respect.  I have argued that this kind of value is ultimately second personal--that we have the standing to demand respect (and the obligation to give it) and that we stand in relations of mutual accountability.  We can think of this as Kant's Kingdom of Ends.

More recently, I have argued that there is another form of intrinsic human value and that it is ultimately second personal also.  We are all worthy of love, where love of the relevant kind is a standing in a "beloved community," as Martin Luther King, Jr., put it.  The relation of mutual love is one of mutual open-heartedness.

When: Thursday, October 16, 2025, 1:00-3:00

Where: University Park Campus, USC, room TCC 450 (Tutor Campus Center, at the top of the elevator)

Hybrid option available (below)