Jan Defranceski

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb

 

 

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A Metaethical Perspective on the Concept of Evil

 

Metaethics is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, meaning, and foundations of moral concepts, judgments, and language. It explores fundamental questions, such as whether moral truths exist objectively and how we understand ethical terms like “good”, “bad”, “right”, and “wrong”. However, there appears to be insufficient metaethical inquiry into the role of opposing concepts in ethical systems and theories. With this presentation, we aim to provoke a metaethical discussion on the concept of good without directly referring to the concept of evil. This perspective may offer deeper insights into the nature of our ethical frameworks and theories.

 

Three questions for discussion:

 

1. Can we discuss the concept of good without addressing the “elephant in the room”?

 

2. Can a philosophically coherent ethical system be constructed without relying on opposing concepts?

 

3. Do all ethical theories, whether implicitly or explicitly, presuppose the concept of evil?

 

 

Links:

 

1. Geoff Sayre-McCord (2007/2023): “Metaethics”. URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaethics/

 

2. Todd Calder (2013/2022): “The Concept of Evil”. URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-evil/

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3. Adam Lloyd Johnson (2020): “Metaethics: What Makes Something Morally Good or Bad?”. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIPfXLx_-Vk

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Short Bio

Jan Defrančeski (mag. ling. et mag. educ. phil.) completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in philosophy and linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. During his studies, he worked as a student assistant at the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Linguistics, and received two Awards for Excellence and the “Franjo Marković” award. His paper “On the Second-Person Perspective in Schopenhauer’s Moral Philosophy” was awarded second prize in the “Oxford University 2023 Competition for Central and Eastern European Perspectives on Philosophy, Theology, and Science”. He is the junior managing editor of two philosophical journals: Filozofska istraživanja and Synthesis Philosophica, and an external associate at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, where he gives seminars on ethics. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb.

 

 

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