Can Morality Shape Reality? | Robert Audi

Typically, moral systems follow from broader belief frameworks, such as religion or metaphysics. But can the direction run the other way? If we commit to a particular moral outlook—whether absolute or relative—does this shape what we take to be ultimately real? Can ethics influence our understanding of the deep structure of the world? Philosopher Robert Audi explores whether moral theory has implications for ontology, the nature of persons, and the existence of God.

Robert N. Audi is an American philosopher whose major work has focused on epistemology, ethics, rationality and the theory of action. He is O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and previously held a chair in the business school there.

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0:00 Do Moral Systems Shape Our View of Reality?
0:32 Can Ethics Influence Ontology?
0:46 The Nature of Persons in Metaphysics
0:57 Promises, Identity, and Moral Responsibility
1:56 The Mars Teleportation Thought Experiment
2:34 Duplication vs Personal Identity
2:50 Ethical Implications of Duplication
3:31 Identity vs Well-Being in Ethics
3:50 Duplication as a Model for Resurrection
4:05 Rethinking the Ontology of Persons
4:32 First-Person Consciousness and Identity
5:02 Is Consciousness Only a Brain Process?
5:26 Can Morality Lead to God’s Existence?
6:25 Why Ethics Does Not Prove Theism
6:41 Does Absolute Morality Imply God?
6:57 Could Relative Morality Disprove God?
7:27 No Inference from Morality to God
7:52 Limits of Moral Arguments for Theism