All those arguments you had as a child -- and the ones you're having now -- are critical to the construction of an ethical consciousness, according to Webb Keane, professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan. He spoke on "Life With Others and the Modalities of Ethics" Nov. 9, as part of the Arts and Sciences Humanities Lecture series.

"Studies of children's language socialization show that the habits and emotions we can identify with moral virtues are shaped and given coherence by ongoing social interactions during the course of a lifetime," said Keane. "We do not just discover ourselves fully formed in the midst of other people with whom we must then contend; rather we come to be fully who we are by virtue of relationships with others."

While this concept is not new to anthropology, Keane has fresh perspectives. "One of anthropology's strengths is its concern with the unspoken assumptions of everyday life. If ethics goes without saying, then explicit moral talk is all the more puzzling," he said. "I'm interested in what prompts those moments of awareness."

Keane says a second strength is anthropology's focus on ordinary things: "So many of the philosophical questions we encounter are not spoken. They don't necessarily come out as words."

The materiality of things has fascinated Keane since his undergraduate studies at Yale in studio art and philosophy. He finds himself always moving between the world of words and the world of materiality.

The "sociological imagination" suggests to Keane that the presence of other people is a crucial element of any ethical situation and of what will count as an ethical decision.

"Ethics is found neither in structures of pure reason nor in psychological universals, but is a product of the cultural life produced within a social order oriented toward a distinct vision of human flourishing," he observed.

"Ordinary interaction is saturated with subtle acts of evaluation and judgment, or 'stance,'" Keane said in his lecture. "But to have moral consequences that endure beyond the moment of interaction, notions of the good must become part of what people are to one another or to themselves. People are shaped as publically known moral characters over the course of their interactions with others and this becomes part of the frame in which actions are expected. Thus people with reputations as liars are expected to lie, and may find it increasingly difficult over time to convince others that they may be telling the truth."

Ivan Small, a graduate student working on Vietnam and cultural anthropology, said it was interesting to see Keane address a non-anthropology audience and take a comparative ethnographic approach, rather than present his own field work. "He thought well on his feet," Small said of Keane's engagement with topics that ranged from transcendent moral authority to radical otherness and modernity.

Keane is no stranger to Cornell, having studied Indonesian language for a year in FALCON's immersion program. "It was a fabulous program, a wonderful, wonderful year," he said in an interview.

He is the author of "Signs of Recognition" and "Christian Moderns" and co-editor of "The Handbook of Material Culture." His two major current projects focus on Indonesian language, media and national culture, and on social theoretical approaches to morality.

The Arts and Sciences Humanities Lectures are presented with support from the Office of the President and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Linda Glaser is a staff writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.