October 10th
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Benson Center suite (Kittredge Central, 2nd Floor)
Food and Drinks will be provided

About the event

Have you ever wondered how a novel works - or what kind of work it’s designed to do on you? Probably not! It seems like the most straightforward of genres. But the curious reader might find more than meets the eye with a little digging. Join Dr. Katie Davis for a lunchtime seminar during which she’ll help you unpack the opening chapters of one of the greatest novels by [arguably] the greatest English narrative artist of the 19th century! Come for free pizza and a free copy of the book, and, perhaps, for some surprising new insights into how narrative is built to move you!

About the speaker

Kathryn E. Davis (PhD, University of Dallas) is an Associate Professor of English and Co-Director of the Classical Education in Rome Summer Program at the University of Dallas (UD). She was named the 2022 Haggar Fellow, an honor awarded annually to a junior faculty member nominated by faculty colleagues for excellence in teaching. She is a member of the editorial board for Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal, and several of her articles have been published in Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line. Her monograph, Liberty in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, was published by Lehigh University Press in 2017.  She has a secondary area of interest in Dante studies; her recent article, “‘Stupor non meno’: What Virgil Saw” appears in Renascence. In the summertime she can often be found teaching high school, university, and graduate students on the UD Rome Campus.

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In this lunchtime discussion series, Paul Diduch and Alex Priou will co-lead discussions Mondays, 12:15-1:15 pm every three weeks (10/2, 10/23, 11/13, 12/4), on excerpts from great works on the question of liberty and education. Food and drinks will be provided.

NOTE: the 12/4 discussion is cancelled due to a scheduling conflict for faculty. We hope you enjoyed the fall series!

10/2, 10/23, 11/13, 12/4
12:15-1:15
Benson Center suite (Kittredge Central, 2nd Floor)
Food and Drinks will be provided

Potential thinkers to be discussed:

1.     Plato
2.     Aristotle
3.     Rousseau
4.     Mill
5.     Kant
6.     Tocqueville
7.     Adams
8.     Nietzsche
9.     Strauss

Register Here

In our first reading (Oct.10), Socrates presents an image of democratic politics, in which we, the powerful but blind people, unwittingly reward the incompetent and malign the decent.  Socrates' humorous allegory portrays political life as filled with self-serving grifters flattering the people, while the ship of state drifts aimlessly on dangerous seas.  The passage's dense imagery admits of multiple applications and thus illuminates much of our political life.

In the second week's reading (Oct. 23), Aristotle begins his inquiry into the human good with a note of optimism and pessimism.  We all want to live well, and that means finding a meaningful place in our community and even in the world.  But we also sometimes worry that our pursuit of a good life will only ever remain a pursuit.  What's the immediate goal of our actions and choices?  And what's the ultimate goal?  How do we get from one goal to the other?  That is, how do our present choices contribute to our living the good life?  And can we ever get there? Students are invited to review Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

For the third week's reading (Nov. 13), It's rare for two short paragraphs in a philosophic work to have world-historical importance, but that's the case with Chapter 15 of Machiavelli's Prince.  There Machiavelli sets forth his critique of all prior thought and lays out his new understanding of truth and causality, as well as its impact on how we understand politics and morality.  Machiavelli promises us greater freedom from necessity than had ever been promised before, a freedom gained only by a new understanding of the world.  Inspired by Machiavelli's revolution, later thinkers reshaped the natural sciences and political life into their present form.  In this seminar, we'll discuss Machiavelli's project and legacy. Prince Chapter 15

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September 6, 2023
4 pm
Benson Center suite (Kittredge Central, 2nd Floor)
Student Focused

About the event

Join Dr. Johanna Jauernig at 4 pm in the Benson Center suite (Kittredge Central, 2nd Floor) for a preview of the Vernon L. Smith: "Adam Smith’s Theory of Society" lecture with a general introduction to experimental economics and learning about Vernon Smith's Nobel laureate speech. Also find out why Vernon Smith's work is itself in the tradition of Adam Smith's work.

About the speaker

Johanna Jauernig has a background in philosophy, experimental economics, and moral psychology. Her research is rooted in the idea that understanding both the incentive structures and the cognitive mechanisms behind moral attitudes is crucial for the ethical analysis of societal problems. With this approach, she addresses topics such as market skepticism, agriculture-society tensions, and the societal impacts of disruptive technologies.

After graduating in philosophy and social psychology at the University of Munich, she obtained her doctorate degree at the Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Management. Her dissertation, which received the Max-Weber-Prize for Business Ethics, consists of experiments on competition and anti-social behavior and a reflection on the use of economic experiments in ethics. Her articles have appeared in journals like the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Psychology, and Philosophy and Technology.  

In her current research projects, she investigates the psychological mechanisms which drive people’s perception of markets and the role systems-thinking plays in overcoming ideological conflict regarding controversial issues.

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