Conference: Unfettering Philosophy (March 31-April 1, 2017)

On behalf of the Eric Voegelin Institute, I’m very pleased to announce a student conference at Louisiana State University on Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1: “Unfettering Philosophy: Reading Aristotle’s Ethics in the 21st Century.”  Designed for undergraduate and graduate students who have some familiarity with the Ethics, the conference will allow students to discuss questions about the text and its contemporary meaning with leading faculty from a variety of universities who have written about the Ethics and have taught it to students at their own schools.

We begin Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm with a keynote lecture by Professor Michael Pakaluk of the Catholic University of America.  Author of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics: An Introduction (Cambridge, 2005), as well as a translation and commentary on Ethics VIII and IX (Oxford, 1999), books on accounting ethics, and more, Dr. Pakaluk earned his PhD with John Rawls at Harvard and taught at Clark University, Brown University, and Ave Maria University, before moving to Catholic last year.  The lecture will be held in Hill Memorial Library on the LSU campus, and a reception will follow.

Saturday we will have three sessions, with discussions led by faculty panelists assigned the topic, “My Favorite Book in Aristotle’s Ethics.”  Panels will begin at 10:00 am and will conclude at 3:00 pm.  Panelists include: Samuel Baker (PhD, Princeton), Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Alabama; Bryan-Paul Frost (PhD, University of Toronto), Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette; Jeremy Mhire, (PhD, LSU), Associate Professor of Political Science at Louisiana Tech; and Rachel Parsons (PhD, Princeton), Assistant Professor of Philosophy at LSU. Panels will be held at the French House, home of the LSU Ogden Honors College.  A continental breakfast will be available beginning at 9:00 am, and lunch will be served.

The conference is open to undergraduate and graduate students and faculty from any university in the region.  There is no registration fee, but to guarantee breakfast and lunch please pre-register by sending an email to voegelin@lsu.edu with (1) your name, (2) your email address, and (3) your university affiliation.  For additional information, feel free to contact me at poston@lsu.edu or call the number below.

A special conference hotel rate is available at the Baton Rouge Marriott for the evening of March 31 if you make your reservations by March 17.  Use this link.  Parking is available on the LSU campus in the lot behind the Visitor’s Center at the corner of Highland and Dalrymple; also, there should be room in the garage attached to the Barnes and Noble bookstore.  (On Saturday, you should be able to park on the streets if you prefer.)

We hope you can join us for what we anticipate will be a lively and enlightening couple days.

James Stoner