Conversation
Do Moral Principles Exist? A Dialogue with Hadi Samadi and Omid Kashmiri
In this dialogue, Hadi Samadi and Omid Kashmiri explore one of the fundamental questions of moral philosophy: do moral principles exist as realities? The discussion examines moral realism, evolution, and the human construction of ethics from two different perspectives.
About this video
The video "Do Moral Principles Exist?" presents a philosophical dialogue with Hadi Samadi and Omid Kashmiri on one of the central questions of moral philosophy: if moral principles are real, what does it mean for them to have reality?
In this session, Omid Kashmiri defends a form of minimal and structural moral realism, arguing that assuming the existence of moral truths can better explain moral growth, moral error, and critical ethical discussion.
Hadi Samadi, in contrast, examines morality at three levels: biological, social, and rational. Drawing on biological and cultural evolution, he views morality more as a technology for coordinating collective human behavior than as the discovery of an external reality.
The discussion also addresses topics such as Kant and Bentham’s views, truth-makers in ethics, rational intuition, and the problem of free will. This video offers those interested in moral philosophy, analytic philosophy, and fundamental questions about human values and norms an opportunity to engage with two different approaches to moral reality.
