Making Lovers: Emmanuel Levinas and Iris Murdoch on Moral Formation

"Making Lovers: Emmanuel Levinas and Iris Murdoch on Moral Formation"Stephen Bush, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Brown UniversitySupported by the Boston University Center for the Humanities.This event is free and open to the public.What sort of attitudes might confront prevailing structures of violence and also the apathy and enmity that buttress these structures? Many have proposed empathy. What we lack collectively, they say, is the ability to put ourselves in the situation of the other, to feel as the other does. Empathy has its critics, however, for its biased nature and for focusing on individuals instead of on systemic problems. We might, then, prefer some sort of broadly directed attitude of care, concern, and compassion instead of empathy. However, the question remains how such an attitude could be instilled in individuals and groups.Drawing from the philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Iris Murdoch, we can see the possibilities and challenges that attend the collective and individual task of forming moral and political agents of the sort who can exhibit care and concern for humanity broadly, especially for vulnerable and suffering humans. Both Levinas and Murdoch, like proponents of empathy, think it is essential to attend to others in their individual particularity. Can attention to particular others help cultivate care for humanity more broadly? How can we learn to attend to others properly? What role do religious traditions have in such moral education (Levinas)? And to what extent can individuals, apart from traditions, achieve attitudes of responsible care and concern through intentional practices (Murdoch)? Stephen S. Bush is an associate professor of religious studies at Brown University. He works in the fields of philosophy of religion, religious ethics, and theory of religion. His first book, Visions of Religion: Experience, Meaning, and Power (Oxford, 2014), examines influential theories of religion over the past hundred years to develop a social practical theory of religion that allows us to analyze the experiential and symbolic aspects of religion without losing sight of issues of social power. His second book, William James on Democratic Individuality (Cambridge, 2017), argues that James’s philosophy is a vital resource for understanding democracy and democratic citizenship today. He is presently working on a book project that examines the way attention to particular human beings can foster ethical practices of care and concern for humans generally, for non-human animals, and for the environment.

When 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Location Boston University School of Theology 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 325
Contact Name Troy DuJardin
Contact Email ipr@bu.edu