The MoPIC talks are a series of online talks hosted by the Moral Progress: Individual and Collective project. The series features researchers from philosophy and related disciplines discussing themes related to moral progress and moral change.

Programme:

Friday March 6th 2026, 16:00 CET — Francesco Testini (NOVA University Lisbon & University of Milan), ‘Why Genealogy?’

Friday April 10th 2026, 14:00 CET — Frauke Albersmeier (University of Münster), TBA

Friday June 12th, 14:00 CET — Nigel Pleasants (University of Exeter), ‘A Marxian Theory of Moral Revolutions.’

Past Talks:

Friday January 30th, 14:00 CET — Mandi Astola (Delft University of Technology), ‘Tricksters, Moral Revolutions and the Metaethics of Moral Creativity.’

• Abstract: The trickster is an archetype in myth that inhabits a position between categories, play tricks on others and is guided by appetite. Examples of mythical tricksters are Hermes, Elegba, Loki, Coyote and Brer Rabbit. Some people also possess trickster-like traits. In particular, we associate trickster-likeness with artists, inventors, and other creative professionals. At the same time, tricksters are also associated with conmen, thieves and psychopaths. Trickster-like traits, such as authenticity, curiosity and creativity, are very magnetic and likeable, in addition, many people admire trickster-figures. I will argue that this admiration is partially justified. While an archetypal trickster does not possess any virtue in the full-fledged sense, I argue that they possess qualities that can interact in a valuable way with the traits of others. A trickster can humble the arrogant, provide a counterbalance to norms or tendencies that are too dominant in a community or transform the norms of the community into a better set of norms. Admiring norm breakers and transformers implies that morality (or any other system of valuing) can not be equivalent to one self-coherent system of social norms. In this talk I explore different ways of understanding the metaethics of admirable norm-breaking and what it reveals about the relationship between morality and norms.