WEEK 6
26 February 11am-12.30pm (Seminar in the Gibson Building)
Professor Piotr Szalek, Catholic University of Lublin
11am Seminar: ‘Intellectual Humility, Science, and Religion’
Abstract: Intellectual humility is an intellectual virtue, along with the other epistemic and moral virtues such as open-mindedness, intellectual courage, insightfulness, and integrity, and is regarded as one of the essential components of a fruitful scientific investigation. Moreover, intellectual humility is essential as a practical tool to deal with the so-called deep disagreement between different theories or worldviews. The talk aims to analyse the concept of intellectual humility as an intellectual virtue in the context of the dispute between theism and atheism. It reconstructs the origins, structure, and functions the concept plays in both philosophical and theological standpoints. The analysis of those three aspects will help us to understand the nature of intellectual humility as it is characterised and applied in both theism and atheism. It hopes to shed some light on the common elements shared between these two philosophical and theological standpoints as well as the real differences between them. To narrow the philosophical scope, the talk explores the moral and religious theories of virtue ethics and expressivism as regards their similarities and differences in explaining the place of values in the natural world and the limits of our knowledge of God. A historical case study of the first expressivist theory of religious language by George Berkeley will enable the talk to connect the concept of intellectual humility to the theory of scientific language.
Professor Piotr Szalek is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Catholic University of Lublin. Since 2023, he has been also affiliated with the Faculty of Philosophy and Ian Ramsey Centre, Campion Hall, and Christ Church at the University of Oxford.
