Human beings are beings with diverse rational capacities such as the capacity to deliberate, to act intentionally, to acquire knowledge and to evaluate their environment and themselves. Even though there are important differences between these various abilities, they can all be described as inherently normative: exercising these capacities involves making some kind of normative assessment. In this workshop we aim to gain further understanding of the notion of a normative capacity. We will discuss questions such as: what makes a capacity inherently normative? Can existing accounts of powers and dispositions accommodate this normative dimension? Is there an important difference between theoretical and practical normative capacities? How should we understand the dynamics between successful and failed exercises of normative capacities?

Program:

09.30 – 10.00    Introduction (Annemarie Kalis, Utrecht)
10.00 – 11.00    Naomi Kloosterboer (VU Amsterdam): “The Ambiguity of Inference”
11.15 – 12.15    Erasmus Mayr (Erlangen): TBA
12.30 – 13.30    Christian Kietzmann (Marburg): “Scanlon on judgement-sensitive intentions”
Lunch
14.45 – 15.45    Dawa Ometto (Erlangen): “Self-knowledge and the unity of virtue”
16.00 – 17.00    Niels van Miltenburg (Utrecht): “Agency as a normative capacity”
17.15 – 18.15    Ryan Cox (Hamburg): “Knowledge of moral incapacity”

Registration: Participation and lunch are free, but spaces are limited. Please register before May 4th by sending an e-mail to Annemarie Kalis: A.Kalis@uu.nl