University of Texas at Austin

UTC 1.144

6:00 PM

A lecture by Prof. J. Budzsizewski (University of Texas, Austin)

Free and open to the public

This lecture is sponsored by the Thomistic Institute. 

Lecture Description:

Pope Benedict XVI warned about the “dictatorship of moral relativism,” and rightly so. But let us give relativists their due.  Even the great St. Thomas Aquinas said that some norms vary according to circumstances (it would be wrong to drive on the right in England, wouldn’t it?) Besides, some moral questions are confusing (is capital punishment murder?) So is there anything that doesn’t change (like what marriage is? or does that change too?) Can we know it? And is all this just “Christian morality,” or can it have traction in the public square?

Speaker Bio:

Professor Budziszewski is a professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin, where he also teaches courses in the law school and the religious studies department.  He specializes in political philosophy, ethical philosophy, legal philosophy, and the interaction of religion with philosophy. Among his research interests are classical natural law, virtue ethics, conscience and moral self deception, the institution of the family in relation to political and social order, religion in public life, and the problem of toleration.