Colloquium: February 27th
Title:Can Philosophy Save our Cities and the World?
Speaker: Frank Cunningham (University of Toronto)
Friday, Feb 27th at 2:30pm in CLE A203
Abstract:
An hypothesis in several strains of both environmental and political theories is that, absent appropriate widely embraced values, certain core problems are intractable. This hypothesis is advanced in the two papers attached to this abstract, “The Gruing of Cities” and “Globlization and Developmental Democracy" (at, respectively, pp. 57-61 and 503-505) with specific reference to C.B. Macpherson’s view that confronting the problems addressed in these papers requires a transformation in popular culture from attitudes of apathy and resignation at best or possessive individualism at worst to ones incorporating what Macpherson, drawing on Aristotle and Dewey, called ‘developmentalism.’ In this talk, I explore ways that philosophers, qua philosophers, might contribute to the nurturing of such a culture.