Human Rights from the Bottom Up: Dr. William J. Talbott

This will be part of a series of events where local philosophy professors will lead discussions for the group. In order to facilitate interaction these sessions are not intended as lectures followed by Q and A, but rather as facilitated and guided philosophical conversations.

We would like to thank the Society for Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) for their support of this series as part of their effort to build communities of philosophical conversation. You can check out their website and membership opportunities here: https://www.philosophersinamerica.com/membership-account/membership-levels/

This session will be led by Professor William J. Talbott the Joff Hanauer Honors Professor in Western Civilization at UW. He teaches and has published articles in epistemology, and moral and political philosophy, including the philosophy of human rights, rational choice theory, and the philosophy of law. He is the author of two books in the philosophy of human rights: Which Rights Should Be Universal? (Oxford, 2005), the Korean translation of which was named Korean Human Rights Book of the year in 2011, and Human Rights and Human Well-Being (Oxford 2010).

Session Description: In spite of what the authors of the U.S. Declaration of Independence claimed, human rights are not self-evident. They are the result of a centuries-long process of moral discovery. Only now, centuries on, are we in a good position to answer the questions: What is being discovered? How is it being discovered? Those questions will be the focus of our discussion.