Lecture series abstracts
Spring 2026
Priceless: A Kantian Argument for Pacifism
Immanuel Kant held that persons were valuable "beyond all price," which many have interpreted to mean that persons have infinite value. In this lecture, Blake Hereth (they/them), PhD, is Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics, Humanities, & Law at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker, M.D., School of Medicine (WMed) will defend two main claims: (1) Persons have infinite value and (2) if persons have infinite value, then it is impermissible to harm them without their consent. After reviewing two existing arguments for the infinite value of persons, they will defend the Proportionate Reasons Requirement (PRR) for permissible nonconsensual harming. According to the PRR, your epistemic reasons for harming an individual without their consent ought to be roughly proportionate to that individual's value and the significance of the harm you will inflict. If persons have infinite value, as they argue in the first portion of the talk, then permissibly harming persons without their consent requires infinitely strong epistemic reasons. Since our epistemic reasons could always in principle be stronger, we are never permitted to harm persons without their consent. Thus, pacifism is true. This is the Ethics Center's 2026 Winnie Veenstra Peace Lecture.