The Demands of Morality

APRIL 8, 2013 | With Tamar Schapiro

We all want to lead a moral life. But even if we all agreed on what that would mean, we still have to to balance our own self-interest with the competing demands of morality. This becomes even more challenging when the decks are stacked against us, or when everyone around us is only looking out for themselves. So in the real world, what does it mean to live a moral life? Do we have a responsibility to act morally when others around us are not? And what do we do if morality makes excessive demands of us? John and Ken balance their own self-interests with Tamar Schapiro from Stanford University, for a program recorded live as part of the Stanford Continuing Studies course "The Art of Living."