Research Institute CLUE+, the Department of Philosophy, Study Association Icarus, and Abraham Kuyper Center present: VU Philosophy Colloquium October 2017

Professor Robert Audi (University of Notre Dame, USA)

Date: Friday, October 6, 2017
Time: 14:00-15:30
Venue: room HG-0G10, VU Main Building G-wing, De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam.

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Program:

14:00 – Opening and introduction
14:10 – 15:00 Lecture by prof. Audi
15:00 – 15:30 Q&A/discussion

All are welcome to attend.

The Place of the University in Democratic Societies: Intellectual Standards, Ethical Citizenship, and Meaningful Life

What is the right balance between universities as having the intellectual responsibility to enhance knowledge and develop minds and the “practical” function of contributing to the capacity of students—and others—for citizenship?  Can a university achieve both aims if it is “value free?”  And if an educational institution is not value free, as with church-affiliated schools, what special efforts might this impose on universities in preparing students to function well in pluralistic and often increasingly secular societies?  These questions about the role of universities and other educational institutions should not be thought to imply that their function is wholly instrumental.  But should they not be instrumental in contributing to the meaningfulness of human lives?  This presentation will focus on all these questions.

 

About the speaker

Robert Audi is John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame, USA. He works in ethics and political philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of mind and action, and philosophy of religion. His latest book is Means, Ends, and Persons:  The Meaning and Psychological Dimensions of Kant’s Humanity Formula (Oxford University Press, 2016).