Time: 3:30pm
Date: Thursday, October 13
Location: Boardroom, St. Joseph's College
Presenter: Dr. Louis Groarke
In contemporary debates, the usual strategy for euthanasia advocacy is a self-confident appeal to the liberalism that undergirds mainstream moral intuitions. The argument is unsurprising: liberalism is about freedom of choice; euthanasia is about choosing when we die; so euthanasia should be available to those who so choose. Although there are many problems with this sort of reasoning, Groarke will focus here on foundational (as opposed to applied) issues. He will insist that "classical liberalism," the political and moral viewpoint that originates with canonical authors such as John Locke and John Stuart Mill, does not sanction the easy permissiveness about suicide and euthanasia we have grown accustomed to in the popular press and public discourse. He will use liberal arguments to argue that the distinction between active and passive euthanasia is real (despite persistent confusions spread by James Rachels & Co.). He contends that suicide is highly troublesome when viewed from a consistent liberal perspective and that, whatever view we take of the ethics of self-inflicted suicide, assisted suicide, at the very least, cannot be justified.
Dr. Louis Groarke is Professor of Philosophy at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. His research focuses on ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, and the history of philosophy. He has published widely on these topics, including Moral Reasoning: Rediscovering the Ethical Tradition (Oxford, 2011), An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing (McGill-Queens, 2009), and The Good Rebel: Understanding Freedom and Morality (Fairleigh Dickinson, 2002).
Everyone is welcome; an RSVP is requested but not required to Sara at: sara.mckeon@ualberta.ca Light refreshments will be available.