2023/24 Humanities Lecture Series
All lectures were livestreamed.
Humanities Lecture Series 2023-24 (pdf)
11 October 2023: We busted out of class: Embedding a digital curriculum - Ann Gow
Wednesday 11 October 2023, 5.30pm-7.30pm
In the Wolfson Medical Building (Room 253: Yudowitz)
Professor Ann Gow (Information Studies)
We busted out of class: Embedding a digital curriculum
25 October 2023: Surveying the place-names of St Columba's island (Ì Chaluim Chille) - Sofia Evemalm Graham
Wednesday 25 October 2023, 5.30pm-7.30pm
In the Wolfson Medical Building (Room 253: Yudowitz)
Dr Sofia Evemalm Graham (Celtic and Gaelic)
Surveying the place-names of St Columba's island (Ì Chaluim Chille): Surveying the place-names of St Columba's island (Ì Chaluim Chille): Iona's Namescape in context
1 November 2023: Space, Place, Movement in (some) Greek literature? - Andrew Morrison
Wednesday 1 November 2023, 5.30pm-7.30pm
In the Wolfson Medical Building (Room 253: Yudowitz)
Professor Andrew Morrison (Classics)
Space, Place, Movement in (some) Greek literature?
6 December 2023: We undersubscryvers’: participative petitioning and public opinion in early modern Scotland - Karin Bowie
Wednesday 6 December 2023, 5.30pm-7.30pm
In the Wolfson Medical Building (Room 253: Yudowitz)
Professor Karin Bowie (History)
We undersubscryvers’: participative petitioning and public opinion in early modern Scotland
31 January 2024: Digital Cultural Heritage: Engaging Communities, Connecting Collections - Maria Economou
Wednesday 31 January 2024, 5.30pm-7.30pm
In the Wolfson Medical Building (Room 253: Yudowitz)
Professor Maria Economou (Information Studies)
Digital Cultural Heritage: Engaging Communities, Connecting Collections
28 February 2024: Mere truths versus the whole truth - Stephan Leuenberger
Wednesday 28 February 2024, 5.30pm-7.30pm
In the Wolfson Medical Building (Room 253: Yudowitz)
Professor Stephan Leuenberger (Philosophy)
Mere truths versus the whole truth
13 March 2024: Human transformation of the Earth; archaeology in the climate and nature crisis - Nicki Whitehouse
Wednesday 13 March 2024, 5.30pm-7.30pm
In the Wolfson Medical Building (Room 253: Yudowitz)
Professor Nicki Whitehouse (Archaeology)
Human transformation of the Earth; archaeology in the climate and nature crisis
Wednesday 17 April 2024: Moral Blackmail - Ben Colburn
Wednesday 17 April 2024, 5.30pm-7.30pm
In the Wolfson Medical Building (Room 253: Yudowitz)
Professor Ben Colburn (Philosophy)
Moral Blackmail
Abstract
Suppose I want you to do something. How can I make you do it? Depending on me, you, our context, and the nature of the thing I want you to do, I have a number of options: rational or emotional persuasion; manipulation; coercion; physical compulsion; maybe more. Different mechanisms will be more or less effective, depending on the features of the interactions that I listed above, and they will also attract different moral evaluations, not settled (or not wholly settled) by their effectiveness.
In this lecture, I explore a (generally effective and usually problematic) mechanism which has mostly been ignored, namely moral blackmail. Someone is morally blackmailed when they act as they do because all the alternatives have been made morally unacceptable. Moral blackmail is in this sense analogous to coercion, on a plausible understanding of the latter. I defend this way of thinking from some objections, and show how it fits into my broader thinking about the nature and value of individual autonomy. I also show that moral blackmail is a real and problematic phenomenon in global challenges of the largest scale, including how we deal with global poverty and climate change.
