The Meaning of Life
Featured speaker: Dr. Owen Flanagan, James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy at Duke University
October 17, 2019
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Philosophy Village, University Hall 3600
Loyola Marymount University1 LMU DriveLos Angeles, CA 90045
Program Description
What makes for a meaningful life? What makes for true happiness? Many things we care about —money, fame — will not bring meaning or happiness; whereas being moral and having excellent friends do bring meaning and happiness.
Research from cross-cultural philosophy, neuroscience, and economics will help us explore the question of what really matters. Does the meaning of life requires transcendental foundations?
About the speaker:
Dr. Owen Flanagan was born and raised in Westchester County New York. He received his Ph.D. in 1978 from Boston University. He taught for sixteen years (1978-1993) at Wellesley College as Class of 1919 Professor of Philosophy. In 1993 he came to Duke where he is James B. Duke University Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Center for Comparative Philosophy. He also holds appointments in Psychology and Neuroscience, and is a Faculty Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience and a steering committee member of the "Philosophy, Arts, and Literature" (PAL) program, and an Affiliate of the Graduate Program in Literature. He is also the co-coordinator on a multi year project with the Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development and the Vatican on ethics and happiness.
This event is part of the "Dao and Ignatian Spirituality" grant project sponsored by the Robert H. Taylor Chair in Philosophy & the Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination (ACTI).