Join us to discuss virtues, vices, and their role in everyday life. These discussions are co-sponsored by Thematic Option and the USC Department of Classics.
All are welcome!
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
FRIENDSHIP
6:00 — 7:30 PM | AHF 410 | Snacks Provided
What are the ethics of friendship? Is a strong concept of right and wrong useful in negotiating the complicated ways we form, maintain, and even conclude relationships of affection and trust with others? What ethical tools do we have to understand situations in which we’ve wronged others or been wronged in such relationships? What are the duties and obligations that come with friendship, especially in cases of conflict with other moral duties? What distinguishes friendship from the various other ways we form affective ties with others, such as in acts of love and attachment, admiration, wonder, reciprocity, utility, and the like?
Please join Professor Lucas Herchenroeder, Department of Classics, and Dr. Richard Edinger, Executive Director of Thematic Option and USC Dornsife Honors Programs, for an informal discussion on the nature of friendship and its continued relevance in contemporary ethical debate as we reflect on the intersection of human happiness and ethics. All are welcome! Snacks will be provided.
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
COMPASSION
6:00 — 7:30 PM | AHF 410 | Snacks Provided
What is the nature of compassion? Do feelings of altruism or sympathy play any meaningful role in how we understand ethical action? Compassion can be identified with feeling, as suggested by its Latin root (compassio, “shared experience,” or even “shared suffering”). Yet to what extent can what one simply feels also be ethical? Might virtue not require an element of thought or reason as well? Are we even able to understand the experiences of others, for that matter, or to identify with their suffering? If not, what is it that we are speaking of when we speak of feelings of compassion and sympathy?
Please join Professor Lucas Herchenroeder, Department of Classics, and Dr. Richard Edinger, Executive Director of Thematic Option and USC Dornsife Honors Programs, for an informal discussion of the ethics of compassion. The event will be the fourth in a series of reflections on the intersection of human happiness and ethics this year. All are welcome! Snacks will be provided.
Thursday, December 5, 2019
CURIOSITY
5:00 — 6:30 PM | McCarthy MPR 1100 | Snacks Provided
Curiosity, wonder, and amazement — all are familiar values in the western humanist tradition, going back at least to Plato’s quip that wisdom begins in curiosity. Similar notions seem to pervade popular ethics, showing up in suggestions that embracing the unknown or opening oneself to new experiences and new ways of thinking makes us whole or makes our lives richer. Yet how seriously are we committed to such ideas? Self-assuredness and pragmatism are everywhere extolled in society, leaving the contemplative life, by comparison, to be dismissed as self-indulgent or even detached. Does curiosity play a meaningful role in how we find happiness or fulfillment in our lives?
Please join Professor Lucas Herchenroeder, Department of Classics, and Dr. Richard Edinger, Executive Director of Thematic Option and USC Dornsife Honors Programs, for an informal discussion of the ethics of curiosity. The event will be the third in a series of reflections on the intersection of human happiness and ethics this semester.
Thursday, November 7, 2019
BALANCE
5:00 — 6:30 PM | McCarthy MPR 1100 | Snacks Provided
Is balance an important part of human happiness? Popular ethics and moral philosophy have made us familiar with the idea of moderation, yet to what extent can it sustain us in a world increasingly drawn in the direction of extreme values and extreme points of view? Constantly we are asked to divide our limited time and energy to grow in our personal lives, to excel in our academic and professional lives, to cultivate rewarding relationships, and to heed the call of social responsibility. How do we can we possibly meet so many equally deserving demands?Please join Professor Lucas Herchenroeder, Department of Classics, and Dr. Richard Edinger, Executive Director of Thematic Option and USC Dornsife Honors Programs, for a discussion on the ethics and challenges of balance as we continue this series of reflections on the intersection of human happiness and ethics.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
COURAGE
5:00 — 6:30 PM | McCarthy MPR 1501 | Snacks Provided
What tests of courage do we face in our lives? Are we ever called upon to distinguish ourselves through courageous action? Received wisdom and the history of moral philosophy provide important models for thinking about the ethics of courage and related questions of foolhardiness, cowardice, and even pride. Yet to what extent does any of this continue to bear meaning in our lives? Are there uniquely modern situations and experiences that call for a reconsideration of traditional notions of courage?
Please join Professor Lucas Herchenroeder, Department of Classics, and Dr. Richard Edinger, Executive Director of Thematic Option and USC Dornsife Honors Programs, for an informal discussion of these and related questions as we consider the nature of courage and its relevance in contemporary ethics. The event will form part of a series of reflections examining core ideas in ethics and human happiness this semester.