Join University of Lethbridge political science professor, Dr. John von Heyking, as he presents Loneliness, Scientific Authority, and Platonic Couches.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 - 7-9 p.m. (MST)
Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge, Upstairs Ballrooms
320...
Join University of Lethbridge political science professor, Dr. John von Heyking, as he presents Loneliness, Scientific Authority, and Platonic Couches.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 - 7-9 p.m. (MST)
Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge, Upstairs Ballrooms
320 Scenic Dr S, Lethbridge, Alberta
Free. Everyone welcome. Space is limited.
Limited light appetizers and a cash bar will be available.
In this talk, von Heyking will discuss the 2023 United States Surgeon General Advisory on loneliness to examine broader questions regarding scientific authority, liberal democracy, political bonds, including friendship, and the role of the university in promoting them. The Advisory illustrates how overreliance on scientific authority to establish what is true about us leads to bizarre conclusions due to neglect of broader questions about personhood, friendship, and self-government. He will suggest ways fields beyond the physical sciences, including my field of political philosophy, can supplement and round out how we think about human flourishing and community.
Dr. John von Heyking has been a faculty member at the University of Lethbridge since 2000, specializing in political philosophy. He is the author of several notable works, including Comprehensive Judgment and Absolute Selflessness: Winston Churchill on Politics as Friendship (2018), The Form of Politics: Aristotle and Plato on Friendship (2016), and Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World (2001). His research encompasses topics such as liberal and civic education, friendship, personhood, resistance to totalitarianism, cosmopolitanism, empire, Islamic political thought, punishment, and religious liberty.
Learn more: go.uleth.ca/owen-g-holmes-lectures
