Parr Center Lecture: Maggie Little

“A Plea for Translational Ethics”

Philosophical ethics, like philosophy as a whole, is sometimes caricatured as an overly abstract and theoretical enterprise. In fact it has always cared about “the real world”; but its modes and methodologies of engaging with that world are less well developed than those of many other disciplines. In this talk, I offer a novel framework for distinguishing theoretical and applied ethics, and add a further distinction — that between applied and “translational” ethics.  All are critical to the health of philosophy, and the world needs the latter more than ever.