Annual McMurry Lecture

The English & Philosophy Department is pleased to announce the annual McMurry Lecture by. Lynn Sebastian Purcell, Associate Professor of Philosophy.

Livestreaming will be available and, following the lecture, the Gandhi Center for Nonviolence will offer a community dinner and dialgoue. 

Professor Purcell's topic is The Aztec's 5-Fold Path to A Good Life.

The Aztecs had a robust philosophical tradition that, unlike what popular culture suggests, was centered on learning to live a cooperative life well. This path had five parts. First, you must recognize that each of us slips up and errs. Second, we do this because we are unbalanced. Third, the solution to this lack of balance is to grow deep roots in our communities and with our dearest friends. Fourth, this is done through exercising the virtues of prudence, humility, justice, moderation, and courage. Finally, you must engage in a series of drills--sometimes called spiritual exercises--to form the right habits of those virtues. Their view is both strikingly like Aristotle's yet at each moment differently focused.