Keynote 3, Errol Lord

Abstract: Much recent work on ethical epistemology has advocated a kind of individualism about ethical learning. One manifestation of this advocacy has centered on skepticism about ethical experts playing the social roles that experts in other domains play. In this talk I will argue for a view about ethical learning that honors the motivations for this skepticism but still makes room for a social ethical epistemology. I will make this case by exploring the nature and varieties of aesthetic expertise. I will show that once we understand paradigmatic aesthetic expertise, we can see that an important kind of socialism is compatible with an extreme form of individualism about aesthetic learning. This will provide a model for the ethical case. The ultimate conclusion will be that we should start a new field of inquiry about ethics that is analogous to art criticism.