Individual Character and Structural Injustice

Video Recording:

This event took place on Thursday, May 27, 2021.

Event Description:

We live in a time when structural injustices and systemic problems abound, in public health, race relations, gender relations, and more. Policymakers and activists propose structural solutions targeting systems as a whole, like a sugar tax, liability insurance for police, school desegregation, or paid family leave. Policy solutions seldom include suggestions that moral and psychological traits of individuals are at fault or should be the focus of change, like moral education, empathy cultivation, or prejudice and bias reduction. Is there a role for interventions targeting individual moral character or psychology to address at least some of the “structural” problems that we face?

Panelists include:

• Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies, MIT
• Jorge L.A. Garcia, Professor, Boston College
• Nancy Snow, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing, U. of Oklahoma
• Alex Madva, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cal Poly Pomona and Director of the California Center for Ethics & Policy

Hosted by Barry Lam, Associate Director of MSF and host of Hi-Phi Nation podcast.

This event was co-sponsored by the PPE Society.