Speaker Series 2025-2026
ALL TALKS FRIDAYS, 4:00-5:30 pm.
October 10: Meena Krishnamurthy, Queens University
"The Emotions of Nonviolence: Revisiting Martin Luther King Jr's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'" - Book Discussion
There is perhaps no piece by Martin Luther King, Jr. that is more widely read or more beloved than the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Countless articles and books have been written about its generation and meaning. Despite this, its broader philosophical significance has for the large part been missed. The Emotions of Nonviolence offers a novel interpretation of the Letter: it is not merely a discussion of civil disobedience – as is usually thought – but is also and perhaps even primarily an essay on political motivation. On this reading, the Letter seeks to answer a central question in democratic theory: namely, how can and ought we motivate the racially oppressed to engage in civil disobedience – in what King called nonviolent direct action? King’s answer is that we must appeal to and encourage the political emotions, both positive and negative. Fear, courage, faith, dignity, indignation, and love can together motivate nonviolent action and nonviolent action can reciprocally motivate, channel, and sustain these same emotions. It is through this continuous loop that nonviolence has the potential to transform society and its structures.
November 7: Jules Wong, Pennsylvania State University
"Felt Necessity, Becoming, and Needs"
In this talk, I explore the subjective significance of felt necessity. I ask: What does the felt experience of need, or feeling in need, mean to persons? What is the value of attending to this experience? The answers I offer to these two questions root the value of felt necessity in the combination of agency and character that I call becoming. While there are many kinds of felt necessity—including addiction, love, and attachment—I centrally consider an important but unacknowledged variety: transformative necessity, or the felt need for change. I will explain what it means to receive and listen to transformative necessity, discussing examples from trans and feminist writings. Becoming is our ability to articulate who we are by negotiating that which we cannot change directly and making a life that is truly ours, in light of the necessary and contingent ways we are dependent on things, people, and systems. Becoming is, I argue, an activity and source of reasons that is distinct from happiness, reason, and meaning in life—although it importantly overlaps with the last. My account raises challenges to the position that a person’s felt needs matter little to their actual needs in an ethical sense.
November 21: Arianna Falbo, Toronto Metropolitan University
January 23: Rachel Barney, University of Toronto
January 30: Şerife Tekin, SUNY Upstate Medical University
March 6: Lisa Guenther, Queens University