Micro-Seminar: Meet New People (And Be Kind To Them): The Philosophy of Ethical Interaction PART ONE

Micro-Seminars have two parts. Attendance to both parts is required. Registering for the PART ONE session will automatically enroll you in the PART TWO session on Friday.

Part 1: Thursday, August 22, 2024 from 3:00 – 4:30 pm (PST)
Part 2: Friday, August 23, 2024 from 10:00 – 11:30 am (PST)

In your college classes, you're going to encounter hundreds of new people, many of them with vastly different life experiences and values than your own. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas called these meetings “encounters with the face of the Other”; he believed that, when we confront new people, their vulnerability, their singularity, and their presence as a subjective being calls to us, and demands that we engage with them. But how can we make sure we engage in the right way – ethically and responsibly – without compromising who we are?

This microseminar will provide you with an understanding of what modern philosophers have to say about ethical encounters, and will then give you the opportunity to engage with them to develop your own understanding of responsible interaction, and your own practice that will allow you to apply it in your academic career.

On Day 1, we will learn about the big ideas of modern ethical philosophers including Emmanuel Levinas, Simone Weil, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and then put their theories to the test by roleplaying a series of fun and thought-provoking moral dilemmas that will test the practical application of their concepts.

On Day 2, we will consider the related ideas of Iris Murdoch, Martha Nussbaum, and Elaine Scarry, who have argued that the best way to practice attending to the unique lives of others is through the contemplation of art. To explore this idea, we will encounter some works of art that will unsettle our own moral assumptions, and then make and share some artistic creations of our own.

This course is for everyone who is interested in getting the most out of their interactions with your future classmates and professors, and who wants to better understand the connection between the accumulation of knowledge and being an ethical person.

Lead By: Professor James Clements

Dr. James Clements teaches courses in writing and music history at USC. He completed his PhD in English Literature at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He has lived and worked in Canada, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. His book, Mysticism and the Mid-Century Novel, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011. He has regularly written and presented on composition and writing pedagogy, including papers on creativity, originality, and plagiarism. He has also published on Patrick White, Iris Murdoch, Saul Bellow, William Golding, and other mid-century novelists. Dr. Clements has also released four albums: Kill Devil Hills (2004), When The Saints Go (2008), The Road to Anhedonia (2011), and A Failure (2018). He has also published several academic and popular articles on music, with recent pieces on Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

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