Hannah Arendt Center presents:
Courage To Be: Lecture and Dinner Series, with Uday Mehta
Putting Courage at the Centre: Gandhi on Civility, Society and Self–Knowledge
Monday, March 30, 2015
Manor House Cafe
6:00 pm
This event occurred on:
Mon. March 30, 6 pm
Abstract: What might it mean to place courage and related notions such as a willingness to die at the center of ones conception of an ethical life, both for individuals and collectivities? I pursue this question with a focus is on Gandhi, for whom courage had a centrality that trumped even his opposition to war and the British Empire. In many ways it was the informing creed of his life and the link between his ethical and political philosophy. In the conclusion I reflect on the distinctive sense in which for Gandhi courage did have a profound connection with democracy, but in a manner that gave no special precedence to familiar political conceptions of democracy.
Uday Mehta is a Professor of Political Science at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY). In the past he taught at Princeton University, Cornell, MIT, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. He attended Swarthmore College as an undergraduate, studying mathematics and philosophy. He received his Ph.D in political philosophy from Princeton University. He has written two books:The Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in the Philosophy of John Locke (Cornell University Press, 1992),and Liberalism and Empire: Nineteenth Century British Liberal Thought (University of Chicago Press, 1999). His next book will be titled A Different Vision: Gandhi’s Critique of Political Rationality. His main research interests include liberalism, post-colonial theory, and globalization.
Topic: Putting Courage at the Centre: Gandhi on Civility, Society and Self–Knowledge
March 30th. 2015
Location: Manor House Cafe
R.s.v.p. Required
Invitation-Only
Seating is Limited.
Abstract: What might it mean to place courage and related notions such as a willingness to die at the center of ones conception of an ethical life, both for individuals and collectivities? I pursue this question with a focus is on Gandhi, for whom courage had a centrality that trumped even his opposition to war and the British Empire. In many ways it was the informing creed of his life and the link between his ethical and political philosophy. In the conclusion I reflect on the distinctive sense in which for Gandhi courage did have a profound connection with democracy, but in a manner that gave no special precedence to familiar political conceptions of democracy.
Uday Mehta is a Professor of Political Science at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY). In the past he taught at Princeton University, Cornell, MIT, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. He attended Swarthmore College as an undergraduate, studying mathematics and philosophy. He received his Ph.D in political philosophy from Princeton University. He has written two books:The Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in the Philosophy of John Locke (Cornell University Press, 1992),and Liberalism and Empire: Nineteenth Century British Liberal Thought (University of Chicago Press, 1999). His next book will be titled A Different Vision: Gandhi’s Critique of Political Rationality. His main research interests include liberalism, post-colonial theory, and globalization.
Topic: Putting Courage at the Centre: Gandhi on Civility, Society and Self–Knowledge
March 30th. 2015
Location: Manor House Cafe
R.s.v.p. Required
Invitation-Only
Seating is Limited.