Philosophy: 2014 Dan & Gwen Taylor Lecture: Doing Good and Doing Evil

Published: March 10, 2014, 11 a.m.

Professor Philip Pettit (Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values, Princeton University) speaks on the topic of ‘Doing Good and Doing Evil’. Are doing good and doing evil on a par? It may at first seem so: doing good to others means conferring a benefit, doing evil means imposing a harm. But first impressions are misleading this case, as in many others. For it turns out that while we expect goodwill in those who do us good, we do not often expect malice in those who do us evil. The difference proves to be significant since it helps to explain some of our most ingrained habits of moral thought. 11 March 2014