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Lecture: Nature and the Good

Nature and the Good lecturer 2018
September 12, 2018
All Day
Thompson Library, The Mortar Board Room 202

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Rödl (Universität Leipzig)
Nature and The Good
 

It has been debated whether practical reasoning concludes in a state of mind – a judgment, an intention – or whether in concludes in an action. The debate has failed to recognize the form and the significance of its question. First, the form: the question is misconstrued as it is thought to address a natural psychic power, found in human beings and perhaps other animals as well, and to be answered by the study of this natural reality. Rather, the question asks for an exposition of the understanding of its conclusion that is internal to practical reasoning. When it is so understood, the answer is clear: the conclusion of practical reasoning is an action. Second, the significance: the significance of this answer to the question resides in its being an understanding of nature: in it, nature is understood to be governed by the good as the supreme principle of all reality. As the understanding in question is internal to practical reasoning, practical reasoning is ethical know­ledge of nature.

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Rödl (Universität Leipzig) studierte Philosophie, Musikwissenschaft, Germanistik und Geschichte an der JWG-Universität in Frankfurt am Main und an der FU Berlin. Der Gegenstand seiner systematischen Arbeit ist die Natur des menschlichen Denkens und Handelns: Philosophie des Geistes und der Sprache, Erkenntnistheorie, Moralphilosophie, Handlungstheorie. Die klassischen Autoren, die ihm am meisten bedeuten, sind Aristoteles, Thomas von Aquin, Kant, Hegel, Frege, Wittgenstein.

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GLL is co-sponsoring this Philosophy Department lecture.