Below is the audio recording of Russ Shafer-Landau’s presidential address, “Twenty Questions,” given at the 2021 Central Division Meeting. The full text is available on the APA website (member sign-in is required) as well as on JSTOR.
The audio of the lecture is available here:
“Twenty Questions” by Russ Shafer-Landau
Russ Shafer-Landau is Elliott R. Sober Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Arizona. His primary research interest is in ethics. He is the author of Moral Realism: A Defence (Oxford 2003), Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? (Oxford 2004), The Fundamentals of Ethics (Oxford 2010), Living Ethics (Oxford 2018), and, with John Bengson (Texas) and Terence Cuneo (Vermont), Philosophical Methodology: From Data to Theory (Oxford 2022). He is the editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics, and is the founder and organizer of the annual Madison Metaethics Workshop (MadMeta). He served as president of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association in 2020–2021.
About this series: The Blog of the APA is pleased to publish the Presidential Addresses and John Dewey Lectures given at the Eastern, Central, and Pacific APA Division Meetings, which communicate the ideas and experiences that the renowned philosophers who delivered them felt are most important for people in the field to know. The Blog wishes to thank the APA leadership and Jeremy Cushing for their support and assistance in making these recordings available.
Dr. Shafer-Landau’s “Twenty Questions” address feels like a masterclass in philosophical curiosity and humility. I love how he uses the question format not as a gimmick, but as a way to remind us that philosophy thrives on uncertainty and dialogue. His ability to tie complex metaethical ideas to real, enduring human concerns shows why he’s such a respected figure in the field. Listening to the talk, you can sense his deep respect for inquiry itself — the idea that asking the right questions is often more illuminating than rushing to answers. It’s thoughtful, sharp, and genuinely inspiring.