Stephen Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He is a world-renowned moral philosopher who has worked broadly across the ethical landscape, making important contributions to Kant scholarship, legal philosophy, deontology, and countless other areas. Steve and Robinson discuss the history of modern ethics, beginning with Hugo Grotius and traveling up through Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and Smith before ending with Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s attack on morality.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robinsonerhardt
Outline:
00:00 In This Episode
00:22 Introduction
4:04 Steve’s Time at Yale
12:39 Ethics and Normativity
19:56 Hugo Grotius and the Birth of Modern Ethics
30:18 Hobbes on Morality
39:33 Hume on Morality
45:56 Kant on Morality
54:59 Jeremy Bentham on Morality
58:31 Adam Smith on Morality
1:10:51 A Brief Diatribe on Google
1:16:28 The Continental/Analytic Divide
1:23:17 Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche’s Attack on Morality
1:35:21 Are Moral Philosophers Moral?