Perceiving the Normative World

In this talk I will defend the idea that we can literally perceive aesthetic and ethical features of the world, a view that I call direct perceptualism. I will argue for this on the grounds that direct perceptualism provides the best explanation of how we learn concrete normative facts. Along the way I will argue against brute reliabilist views, intuitionist views, and indirect perceptualist views.

Errol Lord is an Associate Professor and Graduate Chair in the philosophy department at the University of Pennsylvania. In the 21-22 AY he is a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellow at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. In the 21-22 AY he is also a Marc Sanders Foundation Philosophy in the Media Fellow. He works on ethical theory, epistemology, aesthetics, and the philosophy of mind & action.