VIRTUAL IAS Book Launch: Rules and Ethics: Perspectives from Anthropology and History

Join the zoom event here

Recent anthropological interest in ethics and historical explorations of 'self-fashioning' have led to extensive study of the virtuous self, but existing scholarship tends to pass over the kind of morality that involves legalistic reasoning. Rules and ethics corrects that omission by demonstrating the importance of rules in everyday moral life in a variety of contexts. In a nutshell, it argues that legalistic moral rules are not necessarily an obstruction to a rounded ethical self, but can be an integral part of it. An extended introduction first sets out the theoretical basis for studies of ethical systems that are characterised by detailed rules. This is followed by a series of empirical studies of rule-oriented moral traditions in a comparative perspective.

Professor Ben Kaplan (UCL History) and Professor Fernanda Pirie (St Cross, Oxford, Anthropology) will each give a short response to the book followed by the editors of the volume (Professor Morgan Clarke and Dr Emily Corran) making some closing remarks.

All welcome. This is a virtual event. Please note that there may be recording at some events. Please follow this FAQ link for more information. All our events are free but you can support the IAS here.