In this year's first Food for Thought module entitled Friendship and the Polis, we will examine how friendship—as both concept and, more importantly, a practice—enables us to navigate differences of opinion on truth, justice, and morality within a democratic polity. Amid ever more frequent calls for the virtues of civility and toleration in an ever more polarized populace, this seminar will consider whether conversation and dialogue between people of differing worldviews require not mere tolerance of the other, but friendship with and love for the other. In a country grappling with deep divisions on every conceivable topic, can friendship on an individual and a societal level enable us to act with malice toward none, with charity for all, and to make a reality the promise and the dream of our deeply flawed nation of high ideals? Join us as we reflect on such questions drawing from the texts of great thinkers both classical and contemporary.

Dates: Wednesdays, September 9, 16, 23, 30

Time: 7:00pm to 8:00pm Eastern

Zoom: The Zoom details will be emailed to all who register using the link below.

Readings:

• September 9: During Session 1 of the module (September 9), we will read a very brief text and watch a short video together during the session. You are not required to read or watch the video before the session itself, but if you would like a preview, you can click here to access the excerpt of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and click here to access the video of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s eulogy for Antonin Scalia. We will be watching and discussing 05:48-08:15 of this video.

• September 16: Click here to access the readings for September 16, including an excerpt from John von Heyking's essay "Friendship: The Horizon of Our Common Life," and excerpts from Linda G.M. Zerilli's "Against Civility: A Feminist Perspective."

• September 23: Click here to access the readings for September 23, which include excerpts from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and excerpts from two Alasdair MacIntyre texts: After Virtue and Dependent Rational Animals.

• September 30: Click here to access the readings for September 30: "Friendship in the Age of Trump" (a New York Times article by Peter Whener), excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience," and a comic strip called "Borrow the Sugar" by Sarah Lazarovic.

This seminar is open to students only.