Ana Marta González, the academic coordinator of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), as well as an ICS research fellow and Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Navarra, plans a three-month research stay within the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University (United States) with a grant from the Salvador de Madariaga mobility program. The grant is part of the National Plan for Academic Research, Technology and Innovation for the 2013-2016 period.

Professor González, who heads ICS's Emotional Culture and Identity project, which is funded by Zurich-Insurance, will develop the Culture, practical identity and moral obligation in Christine M. Korsgaard project at Harvard.

The researcher explains that the immediate purpose of the research stay is to conclude the drafting of two papers: Practical identity according to Korsgaard: Between culture and morality and Emotions and the genesis of value. They are part of her contribution to the project "Action, emotion and identity: Elements for a theory of late-modern societies" (funded by the Ministry of Economy and Finance), of which she is principal investigator and which ends in December of this year.

The project also aims to strengthen the academic relationship with Professor Korsgaard, which began during her postdoctoral fellowship as a Fulbright Scholar in the 2002-2003 academic year, as well as to explore possibilities for institutional collaboration.

Practical identity: mediation between culture and morality

"Despite the interest that Christine M. Korsgaard's philosophical and moral production has incited, her concept of "practical identity" has been scarcely explored. It is, however, one of her most original contributions and it allows for a connection between moral philosophy and the social sciences through the notions of culture and identity, an issue that I have been dedicating my research to in recent years, " or so claims Prof. González.

She continues, "What I think is particularly worthy of study is how the notion of practical identity allows for the articulation or mediation between culture and morality. The importance of distinguishing between practical identity and moral identity is found when realizing that there are potential conflicts between both (e.g., ‘a good soldier obeys orders, but a good human being does not massacre the innocent.')"