Charles Taylor to Address W&L's “Happiness Seminar”
Charles Taylor, emeritus professor of philosophy at McGill University, is the third speaker in Washington and Lee University’s year-long “Questioning the Good Life” interdisciplinary seminar series. His talk will be Thursday, Nov. 29, at 4:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater, University Commons.
The title of the talk, which is free and open to the public, is “Relating Morals to Ethics.”
One of the issues he addressed in his seminal work “A Secular Age,” is an historical account of the emergence of an idea of happiness that detaches the good from ends beyond human flourishing. This account allows people to see shortcomings in and conceive alternatives to the modern vision of happiness.
Taylor is the author of more than 10 books including “Sources of the Self” and “Dilemmas and Connections: Selections Essays.” His writings have been translated into 20 languages, and have covered a range of subjects, which include artificial intelligence, language, social behavior, morality and multiculturalism.
Taylor was appointed a member of the Companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor, in 1996. He was also a winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities (2007) and the Kyoto Prize for significant contributions to the scientific, cultural, or spiritual betterment of humankind (2008).
Taylor received his B.A. in history and his B.A. in politics, philosophy and economics from McGill University, and his M.A. and DPhil. from Oxford.
News Contact:
Julie Cline
News Writer
jcline@wlu.edu
540-458-8954
