On January 11, Prof. Dr. Marcel Verweij, a member of the ESDiT Management Board, held his inaugural lecture “Practicing Ethics” as Professor of Philosophical Ethics at the University of Utrecht. Following the steps of Prof.dr. Robert Heeger to promote research on how practical ethics can reinforce ethical theory and vice versa in the Netherlands, Marcel offered a critical assessment of the role of thought experiments in practical ethics.
He did so by showcasing examples of how practical ethics – including ethics of technology – can contribute to theory development in normative ethics. The lecture concluded with the wish to develop a radically pluralistic moral theory to bring together different branches of ‘applied’ ethics. Such a theory is based on the pluralistic view of what makes life on earth worth living and how these different values are interrelated and presuppose each other.
You can watch the recording and read Marcel’s lecture here.