This workshop aims to explore whether, in what respects, and on what grounds personal relationships impact the normative landscape. Answers to these questions depend both on the normative aspect and on the type of personal relationship on which one focuses, and are relevant to issues in normative as well as applied ethics. The workshop focuses on foundational issues in normative theory.
The workshop aims to elucidate to what extent personal relationships can be normatively relevant and how this relevance can be explained. By focusing on personal relationships we mean to set aside debates about the normative impact of forms of belonging or group membership, such as membership in a certain society. This way we want to allow a focused discussion concerning the specifics of personal relationships and their various different forms, including for example romantic relationships, family relations, friendships, job relations, and acquaintances.
As regards the relevant normative aspects, we are interested in relationships’ impact on the generation of special kinds of duties, rights, and reasons. We would however like to broaden the focus and include questions addressing normative aspects that have so far been less attended to: Do relationships affect the weight of duties and the strength of reasons? Do relationships give rise to (changes in) normative powers and authority? How and to what extent do relationships influence the deontic or evaluative moral status of conduct? How do relationships change the range of appropriate reactions to morally wrong conduct? To what extent do relationships affect epistemic requirements and epistemic justification?
The Workshop is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the University Research Priority Program for Ethics of the University of Zurich.
