The winter 2012 Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Lecture Series will open with a talk by Darren Hibbs, Ph.D., assistant professor in the college, on Thursday, Jan. 19. Hibbs will discuss “Why Progressives Need a (Minimally) Realist Theory of Truth,” from noon to 1:00 p.m., in the Alvin Sherman Library, Second Floor Gallery.
The presentation will include arguments for the following claims:
- Progressive political and social criticism is conceptually coherent only if an argument can be given showing why some states of affairs are preferable to others.
- In order to justify the claim that some states of affairs are preferable to others, some minimally realist account of truth must be presupposed.
- Crude relativism about truth cannot provide a conceptually coherent foundation for progressive criticisms of any state of affairs and, by extension, cannot support justifications for preferring one state of affairs over others.
The Faculty Lecture Series draws from the knowledge and expertise of more than 120 full-time faculty members within the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences. The series explores the faculty’s diverse areas of interest in the arts, humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, and biological sciences. These talks are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Jim Doan, Ph.D., professor in the college, at (954) 262-8207.