49 - Stephen Darwall: The History of Modern Ethics

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?