PHILOSOPHICAL CONGRESS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27048, 25 May 1953, Page 3

PHILOSOPHICAL CONGRESS

SESSIONS DURING WEEKEND

"It is hard to understand why some moral philosophers still write and talk as though sociology and anthropology had never happened,” said Mr R. G. Durrant, of Otago University, speaking to the philosophical congress in Christchurch on Saturday morning. “Two hundred years ago there was some excuse for a cultured Englishman’s believing that the majority of mankind had moral beliefs which were not markedly different from his own,” Mr Durrant continued. “But today there is a great mass of anthropological literature which points clearly to the fact that there is an enormous diversity of moral codes.” Mr Durrant was discussing the moral philosophy of Adam Smith, arguing that in addition to his fame as an economist, and in particular as author of “The Wealth of Nations,” Smith deserved greater recognition than he had received for moral writings. Mr Durrant expounded Smith’s theory of moral approval and disapproval as being based upon sympathy and imaginative placing of oneself in the place of others, and went on to claim that if Smith was correct in his emphasis on the part played by society in the formation of moral attitudes, then moralists should pay more attention to the different attitudes produced by different ways of life in various societies.

In a lively debate on Mr Durrant’s address, Professor J. A. Passmore remarked: “I am amazed at the readiness with which many people ,are\ prepared to pass judgment on others.” At another point in the discussion Mr W. Rosenberg, economics lecturer at Canterbury University College, drew some interesting parallels between Adam Smiths moral theory and his economics.

Discussing some recent writings of Professor Gilbert Ryle, of Oxford, Professor William Anderson, president of a newly-formed association for New Zealand philosophers, gave the presidential address on Saturday evening, Professor Anderson spoke vigorously and entertainingly of certain fallacies which he believed to be mherent m a great deal of modern philosophy, and which have influenced current thinking on education, politics, and social science. . Dr. Alan Crowther, senior lecturer in psychology at Canterbury College, told delegates last evening that “It is a long time since experimental psychologists have been interested in tnemmd in. any shape or form.” He added: “It might save a lot of confusion if experimental psychology were termed ‘behaviouristics’ or given some “ame which would make it clear there is , still a place for a philosophical psychology which is not based upon laboratory work. I hope that philosophers- will give their attention to this subject once more, and not assume that because it is concerned with the mind the experimental psychologists are taking care of it.” Dr. Crowther was in the chair when the meeting was addressed by Professor J J. c. Smart, of Adelaide. Under the title “Time and Substance,” Professor Smart discussed a number of tracutional problems concerning time and other notions connected with it The last two meetings of the congress will be held today. One will be addressed by Professor E. S. Robinson, or Kansas, who will speak on “A Language of Sign-Theory and a Language of Value-Theory,” and the closing meeting will be addressed by Mr D. H. Munro, who will discuss the question, “Are Ethical Questions Genuine?”