Sept. 8, 2005

CUA’s 2005 Philosophy Lecture Series to Explore Natural Moral Law

The Fall 2005 Lecture Series at Catholic University’s School of Philosophy will explore natural moral law — which maintains that morality is grounded in reason and human nature — in relation to today’s pluralistic society.

Titled “Natural Moral Law in Contemporary Society,” the fall event is one of the longest, continuously-running major philosophy lecture series in the country. The lectures, which are free and open to the public, will be presented by 11 international scholars.

The fall 2005 series will examine the continuing relevance of the natural moral law tradition to the contemporary social and political scene as well as society’s openness to the tradition. With its origins in Greek philosophy, the natural moral law tradition has been central to both Catholic moral and legal thinking and to the dominant strain of Western philosophical thought about these matters into the 19^th century.

“The series reflects Catholic University’s special ability to serve the Church as a center of scholarship on the most pressing issues of the day for all people,” says Rev. Kurt Pritzl, O.P., dean of CUA’s philosophy school.

All the lectures are at 2 p.m. in the Life Cycle Institute Auditorium. The dates, names of the speakers and the titles of their lectures follow.

Sept. 9: Monsignor Robert Sokolowski, The Catholic University of America, “Discovery and Obligation in Natural Law”

Sept. 16: Jorge Garcia, Boston College, “Virtues and the Moral Law”

Sept. 23: Jean DeGroot, The Catholic University of America, “Teleology and Evidence: Reasoning About Human Nature”

Sept. 30: David S. Oderberg, The University of Reading, England, “The Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Law”

Oct. 7: Frank Slade, Saint Francis College, “Versions of Political Philosophy”

Oct. 14: V. Bradley Lewis, The Catholic University of America, “Natural Law and the Problem of Public Reason”

Oct. 21: Nelson Lund, George Mason University, “The Natural Moral Law in the U.S. Supreme Court”

Nov. 4: Luke Gormally, Linacre Centre for Health Care Ethics, London, “The Good of Health and the Ends of Medicine”

Nov. 11: J. Budziszewski, University of Texas at Austin, “Natural Law as Fact, as Theory and as Sign of Contradiction”

Nov. 18: Mary Keys, University of Notre Dame, “Politics Pointing Beyond the polis and the politeia: Aquinas on Natural Law and the Common Good”

Dec. 2: John Rist, University of Toronto and Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome, “Aesthetics and Ethics: Some Common Problems of Foundationalism”

Catholic University’s School of Philosophy plans to publish the lectures in a book for the CUA Press series “Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy.” 

The School of Philosophy is one of only three philosophy faculties in the country organized as a separate school, along with those at Cornell and the University of Southern California. The school is unique for courses and scholarship grounded in the Catholic intellectual tradition with an abiding concern for the relation between faith and reason, the intelligibility of nature, and the possibility of an ethics and political philosophy based on rational insight into human nature.

The lecture series is made possible by a generous grant from the Franklin J. Matchette Foundation and support from the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation and the George Dougherty Foundation. For additional information, contact the Office of the Dean, School of Philosophy, at 202-319-5259 or click on http://philosophy.cua.edu/lectures/index.cfm. 

MEDIA: For details about covering the lectures, contact Katie Lee or Chris Harrison in the

Office of Public Affairs at 202-319-5600.

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Revised: 9/8/2005

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The Catholic University of America,
Office of Public Affairs.