Colloquium Series: Meghan Sullivan (University of Notre Dame)

Professor Meghan Sullivan from the University of Notre Dame will give a talk on Friday, October 27, 2023 at 3:00pm in DeBartolo Hall, room 136.

Talk Title: Loving Strangers: Reasons for Love and Supererogation.

Abstract: This projects develops a theory of good samaritanism and supererogation. Whereas most work on samaritanism and supererogation situates the debate within duty-based ethics, I will defend an account of these concepts framed in terms of our reasons of love and virtue ethics. Specifically, I will consider the role that love of strangers might play in justifying our attitudes and actions, and I will defend a type of modern samaritan argument against objections. I will connect this theory with historical debates about dignity and love in Jewish ethics and in the Christian Parable of the Good Samaritan, proposing a continuity between these ancient debates and modern analyses of reasons of love, while allowing for samaritan arguments to have force regardless of one’s religious commitments.