Responding to Reasons and Virtue

University of Lisbon, May 28-29, 2026

 

Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa

Room B 112.D

 

As rational thinkers and agents, we are responsive to reasons. But what is it to respond to reasons? One promising approach, drawing inspiration from virtue epistemology, appeals to the notion of virtue, or related notions such as skill, capacity, or know-how. The idea is that responding to reasons is an exercise of a practical or epistemic virtue (skill, capacity, or know-how). The aim of this workshop is to bring together philosophers addressing questions such as: What is to act or believe for reasons? How does responsiveness to reasons relate to rationality, reasoning, and knowledge? And to what extent can notions like virtue, skill, or know-how illuminate what it is to respond to reasons?

 

Invited speakers:

Maria Alvarez (Kings College London)

Joe Cunningham (Nottingham University)

Carolina Flores (University of Lisbon)

Sophie Keeling (UNED Madrid)

Berislav Marusic (University of Edinburgh)

Erasmus Mayr (University of Erlangen)

Eva Schmidt (TU Dortmund)

 

Organizers:

Erasmus Mayr (University of Erlangen)

David Horst (University of Lisbon)

 

The workshop is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID/00310/2025, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/00310/2025), the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, and the DFG-funded project “Competent Believers: Towards a New Virtue Epistemology”.