Steven Fesmire (Radford University, US)
Educating Beyond Moral Fundamentalism

Moral fundamentalism is the habit of acting as though one has access to the exclusively right way to diagnose problems, along with the single approvable practical solution to any particular problem. This approach causes us to oversimplify situations and take refuge in dogmatic absolute. Exacerbated by social media silos, moral fundamentalism makes the worst of native impulses toward social bonding and toward antagonism. Drawing from John Dewey’s pluralistic and pragmatic approach to philosophical questions, Fesmire clarifies and illustrates the promises and challenges of democratic decision- making in societies struggling to grow beyond moral fundamentalism.

Steven Fesmire is Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and Professor of Philosophy at Radford University. He was President of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy.

His most recent book is Beyond Moral Fundamentalism (Oxford University Press, August 2024). He is the author of John Dewey and Moral Imagination: Pragmatism in Ethics (Indiana University Press, 2003) and Dewey (Routledge Press, 2015), and he edited The Oxford Handbook of Dewey (Oxford University Press, 2019). He also contributes to the wider public awareness of philosophy through writing for a range of newspapers and magazines.

For further inquiries: Yuxin Su (yuxin.su.16@ucl.ac.uk).

Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81813506541
Meeting ID: 818 1350 6541