#525 Brian Leiter: Moral Psychology with Nietzsche
RECORDED ON AUGUST 24th 2021.
Dr. Brian Leiter is Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School and founder and Director of Chicago’s Center for Law, Philosophy and Human Values. His teaching and research interests are in moral, political, and legal philosophy, in both the Anglophone and Continental European traditions, and the law of evidence. He is the author of books like Nietzsche on Morality, Naturalizing Jurisprudence, Why Tolerate Religion? and, more recently, Moral Psychology with Nietzsche.
In this episode, we talk about Moral Psychology with Nietzsche. First, Dr. Leiter tells us what got him interested in Nietzsche. We then ask if Nietzsche was a moral realist, and where he thought morality comes from. We discuss Nietzsche’s ideas about nature and nurture in moral psychology. We get into concepts like “drives”, “affect”, and the “Will”. We talk about the role of personality and individual differences in moral predispositions. We discuss to what extent consciousness has any sort of causal power over our behavior. We talk about Nietzsche’s “death of God” and atheism. We discuss if there is any space for moral revaluation in Nietzsche’s moral philosophy, and if “moral progress” would make sense for him. We talk about the main Nietzschean insights on moral psychology that got vindicated by modern scientific psychology. Finally, we discuss if Nietzsche was an Enlightenment thinker.
Time Links:
Intro
Why study Nietzsche?
Was Nietzsche a moral realist?
The origins of morality
Nature vs nurture
Affect
Personality and individual differences in moral predispositions
Free will and moral responsibility
The causal power of (reflective) consciousness
The Will
The “death of God” and atheism
Is there any space for moral revaluation?
Moral progress
Nietzsche vindicated by scientific psychology
Is Nietzsche an Enlightenment philosopher?
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Leiter Reports: https://bit.ly/2RwNBId
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Moral Psychology with Nietzsche: https://amzn.to/2RFXXWB