The Institute for Ethics and Society hosted Candace Vogler as a Distinguished Visiting Fulbright Professor to the University of Notre Dame Australia from 19 August – 7 September 2017.
Here is her public lecture on Synderesis.
Tag: Synderesis
Frey and Vogler Keynote Stockholm Conference
Our scholar Erik Angner has coordinated the workshop “Workshop: Happiness, Virtue, and the Meaning of Life” at Stockholm University.
In recent years, psychologists, neuroscientists, economists, and other scientists have turned their attention to traditional philosophical themes of happiness, virtue, and the meaning of life. Perhaps not coincidentally, philosophers’ interest in these themes appears to have been rekindled.
This two-day workshop aims to close the gap between empirical and philosophical approaches to questions of happiness, virtue, and the meaning of life, in the interest of encouraging the development of an empirically informed philosophy and a science with philosophical awareness.
The workshop’s keynotes are the Co-Principal Investigators for Virtue, Happiness, & the Meaning of Life.
Jennifer A. Frey’s talk is
Self-Love and Self-Transcendence
This paper will address the question of the connections between virtue, happiness, and meaning of life through the lens of “self-transcendence.” I will explore what the concept of self-transcendence means by way of an account of appropriate self-love. Aquinas argues that vice, and bad human action generally, should be understood in terms of inordinate (excessive or misdirected) self-love. Appropriate self-love, by contrast, inclines one to, and finds its ultimate fulfillment in, the love of others; in short, it is a “self-transcendent” love. In this paper, I will explore Aquinas’s account of appropriate self-love as the foundation for the good or happy life, and the implications of this account for virtue ethics.
Candace Vogler’s talk is
Synderesis
Aquinas holds that human beings are the animals that have to figure out what to do–things are differently challenging for us than they are for other kinds of animals, however careful he is to notice that the highest levels of cognitive functioning in some nonhuman animals are very close to the simplest levels of human cognitive functioning. But he also holds that we come equipped with something that he calls a “natural habit”–synderesis. Synderesis gives us some initial direction, and gains more specific content as we mature. In this talk, I will discuss Aquinas’s notion of synderesis, and explain the sense in which it is plausible to think that there is such a habit, linking my discussion to some work in developmental psychology with an occasional nod in the direction of controversy in contemporary Anglophone philosophy about the ‘guise of the good’ thesis.
For more about the workshop, speakers, and schedule, visit http://www.philosophy.su.se/english/about-us/events/workshop-happiness-virtue-and-the-meaning-of-life
Candace Vogler to Give Annual Aquinas Lecture & Colloquium Talk at Blackfriars
Our Principal Investigator Candace Vogler is presenting at Blackfriars, St Giles, Oxford in early March.
Annual Aquinas Lecture
Thursday 2nd March 2017
“The Intellectual Animal” will be the 2017 Aquinas Lecture, delivered on Thursday 2 March at 5pm in the Aula at Blackfriars, by Prof Candace Vogler, David B and Clara E Stern Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago, and Principal Investigator on “Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life”.
If you wish to attend, please inform:
Link
Aquinas and Newman on Conscience
Saturday 4th March 2017
Freedom of Conscience is a right widely promoted, and widely withheld. If, as Elizabeth Anscombe remarked, “a man’s conscience may tell him to do the vilest things,” how absolute are its rights? Do we need to clarify what conscience is, and how it follows from our creation in God’s image, if we are to state its duties, privileges and limitations, and cherish it without idolizing it?
Candace Vogler will give the talk “Aquinas on Synderesis”
Link
The Virtue Blog