Huxley Memorial Lecture 2025: The Moral Question by Dr Didier Fassin

Friday 5 December at The London School of Economics & Political Science

The lecture will start at 6pm and will be followed by a drinks reception.

The Moral Question By Dr Didier Fassin

Anthropologists have long been reluctant with regard to the study of morality, fearing that it would be vitiated by the projection of their own values. The word “moral” is indeed simultaneously and ambiguously descriptive and normative. Yet, in recent years, a rich field of research has developed, mainly in the alternative form of a Durkheimian approach to moral codes inspired by the ethics of duty and a Foucauldian interpretation of moral subjectivation inherited from the ethics of virtue.

The lecture will analyse the emergence of these new objects in the study of social life, its resonance with transient changes in public discourses, and the discussions to which it gave rise. But a distinct, critical framework will be presented, questioning both the normative dimension of the word “moral”, so as to open to all values and emotions independently of prior evaluation of their merit, and the consistency of the domain of “morality”, considering that what is observable are instead moral issues linked to historical circumstances, cultural sensitivities, social mobilizations, and political stakes.

Case studies from various research on humanitarianism, immigration, policing, punishment, and violence will serve to reflect on the concepts of moral economies, moral justifications and moral communities, and on their heuristic significance to apprehend some of the most vexing questions of our time, including the unequal worth of lives.

Didier Fassin is Professor at the Collège de France and at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Enquiries to: RAI, 50 Fitzroy St, London W1T 5 BT; tel 020 7387 0455; email

The event is free, but places must be booked. Please click the button below to book