Aeon Skoble

A List
10/25/10

SLU Speaker To Address Issues Of Property Rights, Human Rights

CANTON - Aeon Skoble, philosophy professor at Bridgewater State University, will give a talk titled "Property Rights are Human Rights" on Thursday, November 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Hepburn Hall at St. Lawrence University. The event, part of the economics department's Visiting Speaker Series in Political Economics, is open to the public, free of charge.

What does a commitment to "human rights" entail? How can we conceive of a system of universal human rights that is coherent and practical? In the talk, Skoble will argue that such a system is possible and that it not only includes property rights, but presupposes them. Exploring the relation between property rights and other rights, he states, will show how such a rights theory applies to current issues such as global trade, immigration, gun control and more.

Skoble conducts research in moral and political philosophy, including theories of rights; the nature and justification of authority; virtue ethics; practical reason and moral psychology; just-war theory; classical theories of happiness; and theories of legal interpretation. He is the co-editor of the anthology Political Philosophy: Essential Selections (1999) and author of Deleting the State: An Argument About Government (2008), as well as many essays in scholarly and popular journals. In addition, he writes widely on the intersection of philosophy and popular culture, including such subjects as "Seinfeld," Forrest Gump, The Lord of the Rings, superheroes, film noir and baseball, and is co-editor of Woody Allen and Philosophy (2004) and the best-selling The Simpsons and Philosophy (2000).

For more information, contact the economics department at 315-229-5430.

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