Unconditional commitment to humanity

Radical universalism

Universalism in political ethics has a strong voice in Omri Boehm: He justifies the general and unconditional obligation to humanity as a moral law that precedes positive, man-made law. Boehm contrasts this moral universalism with identity politics from both the left and the right, but also with the emptying of Enlightenment thinking in today's liberal democracies. He sees a legacy of the Hebrew Bible in the fact that people can only think of their humanity through a moral commitment to humanity. Its ethical monotheism was continued through Jewish interpretation to the philosophy of the Enlightenment and was first given a moral but secular version by Kant in his practical philosophy. With this 'Radical Universalism', Boehm brings the concept of unconditional humanity into a contemporary language - and defends it against criticism.

In the Master class, young academics from various disciplines will enter into a discussion with this prominent representative of 'radical universalism' and test their own research projects in this discussion.

Two days earlier, Omri Boehm will be awarded the Alfons Auer Ethics Prize at the celebratory event of the Catholic Theological Faculty and the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. At the ceremony, he will speak about 'Humanity as praxis'. The participants of the Master class will take part in this ceremony.

Humanity as praxis

In the first part of the Master class, participants will give corrections to Omri Boehm's lecture. They will contradict, supplement, confirm or continue Boehm's reflections. The Master class will discuss 'Humanity as praxis' and the 'radical universalism' advocated by Borm via the co-presentations and Omri Boehm's first response.

Research projects

Im zweiten Teil der Master class stellen Teilnehmer:innen – in einer Präsentation von 15 Minuten – ihre eigenen Forschungsprojekte (etwa Promotions- und Habilitationsprojekte) vor, in denen sie (gegebenenfalls auch in einem weiten Sinn) zur Kritik oder Verteidigung des moralischen Universalismus arbeiten. Omri Boehm wird auf ihre Präsentationen antworten und darüber mit den Teilnehmer:innen der Master class diskutieren.

Poster session

Since not all participants will be able to present their research projects, a poster session is planned during the break between the two parts. In this context, all participants will be able to present their projects and thus contextualize their contributions to the discussion in the second part of the Master class..

Invitation

All young scholars (doctoral candidates and postdocs) who are working on questions of moral universalism in their doctoral and postdoctoral projects or in other research are invited to the master class with Omri Boehm - regardless of whether they are doing so in criticism, historical reconstruction or contemporary conceptualization, whether they are working more application- or situation-oriented or generally and systematically, whether they are working hermeneutically, empirically-social-scientifically or systematically in relation to culture, text or tradition. Participants are expected from various academic disciplines, not only from religious theologies and Jewish studies, but also from philosophy and religious studies as well as various social sciences and humanities.

The Master class is open to participants from 'outside' the University of Tübingen. Overnight accommodation in Tübingen (26.-28.11.) will be provided. Scholarships from the Katholische Akademie Rottenburg-Stuttgart will be awarded to participants from outside Tübingen to cover the costs of the practice session and travel expenses.

Conference languages

The conference languages are English and German.

Registration

Interested young researchers should register by September 30 at the email address sozialethikspam prevention@kath-theologie.uni-tuebingen.de. When registering, they should state their research project and outline in a few sentences how it relates to the topic of the Master class. They should also indicate whether they are prepared to give a co-presentation on Boehm's lecture 'Humanity as praxis'. After reviewing the registrations, the organizers decide which of the registrations can be considered. They will select the participants for the two co-presentations and the presentations in the second part of the Master class. The participants will be informed by mid-October at the latest.

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