Randy Cohen, author of “The Ethicist” column in The New York Times Magazine, spoke Thursday at the Wisconsin Union Theater, arguing to be virtuous a society must focus on communities instead of individuals.

The event was organized by UW-Madison’s Jewish Cultural Collective and sponsored by UW Hillel.

According to Cohen, it is relatively easy to agree on what is right, but difficult to determine how to get people to act accordingly.

Cohen said most philosophers focus on an isolated individual’s virtue and then expand to larger communities. However, he said to create a virtuous society, one must address circumstances, not the character of individuals.

“If we’re becoming concerned that we’re becoming an obese nation, we wouldn’t look at one overweight child and discuss just his physiology,” Cohen said. “We would look at the individual child’s metabolism, but we wouldn’t stop there.”

Rachel Lansing, a UW-Madison junior and JCC communications director, said she was intrigued by Cohen’s examples of people’s refusal to better a situation when acting as part of a group.

Cohen also mentioned small changes that have the ability to greatly affect behavior, such as the law in New York City requiring people to pick up after their dogs.

“A change in the assumptions we make about our own social responsibility has led to this profound change in human behavior,” he said.

Cohen added societies cannot rely on heroic individuals to show good conduct, and stressed the need to create ethical communities.

He said community members have reciprocal obligations to each other and build just societies through their moral duties.

Alex Sheridan, a UW-Madison senior and JCC chair, said he thought it was important to expose the personality behind Cohen’s name, adding he thought the event went very well.

“Typically, all of our events cater to a much younger crowd,” he said. “We wanted to bring in someone who would attract a slightly older audience.”