Fall Colloquium Series: Sarah Stroud

Please join FSU Philosophy for the next talk in our Fall 2026 Colloquium Series:

Speaker: Sarah Stroud (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Title: Interpersonal Morality

Abstract:

A venerable line of thought within moral philosophy views personal relationships primarily as impediments to the equal consideration of all which moral thought embodies. I join with W. D. Ross in opposing that picture, maintaining instead that personal relationships are an important source of moral obligations. An examination of how they give rise to such obligations reveals a rich set of morally valenced act-types which are inherently interpersonal, in that they can be instantiated only within interpersonal relationships or interactions. I call the portion, or fragment, of morality to which these concepts belong interpersonal morality, and I suggest that it takes up more moral real estate than one might have thought. My ultimate aim, or hope, is to shift the center of gravity of moral concern toward the distinctive mode of thought which is proper to interpersonal contexts.