Colloquium: Agnes Callard (Chicago)

Department: Philosophy

Date and Time: May 21, 2021 | 4:30 PM-6:30 PM

Event Location: Zoom

Event Details


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Title: Mandatory Opinions

Abstract: Mandatory questions are questions to which a person needs an answer in order to live.  Since we always, at every moment, need an answer, we cannot suspend judgment--not even just long enough to pose the question to ourselves.  For this reason, we tend to answer these questions reflexively, without inquiring into them.  This talk draws on the philosophy of Socrates to discuss our two main sources of reflexive answers to mandatory questions: our bodily appetites and the kinship relations by which we are connected to one another.