The Case Against Morality

Instructor: Stephen Kershnar
Sessions: Mondays, May 17 and 24, 2021 @ 8:30 PM Eastern (5:30 PM Pacific)
Each session will run between 2 and 2.5 hours

Each session will be recorded and immediately available for streaming for participants who are unable to attend a session.

Moral responsibility and morality lie at the heart of how we view the world. In our daily life, we feel responsibility-related emotions: gratitude, pride, love, forgiveness, resentment, indignation, and shame. We love those who freely and reciprocally love us. Also, we feel that people act rightly or wrongly, make the world better or worse, and are virtuous or vicious. These policies are central to our justifying how we see the world and treat others.

Taught by the renowned philosopher Stephen Kershnar, a distinguished teaching professor and chair of the Philosophy department at the State University of New York at Fredonia, this course will present and examine the argument that our views on these matters, except love, are false.

Topics:

1. Why no one is morally responsible
2. If people were morally responsible, they would only be responsible for what goes on in their head
3. Why consent is not morally transformative
4. Why people do not have rights