The Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: Events

Thursday, 21 May 2026, 11:00
Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, Am Wingertsberg 4, 61348 Bad Homburg

Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften of Goethe University
FKH colloquium

Henry Krahn (Justitia Center for Advanced Studies)
»On the Possibility of Deep Moral Change«

Abstract
There has recently been a renewal of philosophical interest in moral change. While few philosophers today take the triumphalist view often associated with the Enlightenment, there is lively debate over the nature, causes, and significance of moral progress, as well as of its opposite, moral regress. This debate raises troubling questions about the relationship between history and morality. For example, what does the »moral« part of moral progress imply? Does it imply the realization of transhistorical moral truths, or simply the resolution of historically specific social problems? In this talk, I discuss theories of moral progress that offer both kinds of answer, and I argue that each struggles to balance fidelity to history with fidelity to morality. I then suggest that we might strike a better balance by adopting a view according to which morality is something real and objective, but open, in principle, to fundamental change over time. This is a view that recognizes the possibility of what I call deep moral change. I argue that, while the idea seems highly counterintuitive, it can be given considerable argumentative support. Finally, I discuss ways in which it might be further developed, as well as new philosophical problems it raises.

Henry Krahn is a philosopher working on issues at the boundary of moral and political philosophy. In 2025/26 he is a postdoctoral fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, at the invitation of the Justitia Center for Advanced Studies funded by the Alfons and Gertrud Kassel Foundation. Prior he was a Hauser Post-Doctoral Global Fellow at the New York University School of Law, affiliated with the Center for Law and Philosophy. He received his PhD at the University of Toronto in the Department of Philosophy in May 2024. The title of his dissertation is »Protest as Holding Others Accountable«.

Participation
Closed event. Contact: Beate Sutterlüty; email: b.sutterluety@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de



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