The Promise of Education - Mark Edmundson

Mark Edmundson

September 28, 2017 | 7 p.m. | 3502 Knauss Hall, WMU

"In Defense of Ideals"

In this talk Mark Edmundson will explore and endorse what he takes to be the three great ideals: courage, compassion and wisdom. He will consider courage in Homer, compassion in the Gospels, and wisdom in the works of Plato and Socrates. How, he will ask, would one pursue one of the ideals in daily life?

Mark Edmundson is University Professor at the University of Virginia. He has won an NEH endowed chair for his teaching, and a Guggenheim Fellowship for scholarship. He’s the author of a dozen books, most recently "Self and Soul: A Defense of Ideals and Why Write?" His book trilogy "Why Read?, Why Teach? and Why Write?" directly addresses the human goods that can be obtained through intellectual pursuits. He has won a Guggenheim Fellowship and earned a National Endowment for the Humanities chair for distinguished teaching.