Colander began by pointing out that the goal of economics lies beyond textbook catch phrases such as optimization and efficient allocation of resources. Rather, it should be the creation of excellent decision-makers, who are instrumental not only in achieving society’s goals effectively through rigorous quantitative analysis, but also in defining these goals. To do that,
CategoryGuest Lecturers
ECLA Guest Lecture: Devin Stauffer on Justice and the Structure of “The Republic”
Having already adjusted to the academic environment of ECLA, the 2008-09 AY students had the opportunity to accompany their growing familiarity with Plato’s Republic with the lecture of Professor Devin Stauffer, a scholar of classical political philosophy. His impetus for reading and discussing Plato comes from his deeply ingrained belief that Platonic works contain “a
Roger Scruton on ‘Hegel’s conception of private property and its critics’
On Thursday 29 May, ECLA was visited by academic heavyweight, Professor Roger Scruton, who delivered a guest lecture on Hegel’s idea of property and its role in the larger framework of Hegelian philosophy. Scruton introduced Hegel’s theory of property in the context of the work of Locke, one of the so-called ‘social contract’ theorists. Locke
Julia Peters on ‘Hegel’s Theory of Freedom’
On Thursday 22 May Julia Peters, future post-doctoral fellow at ECLA, helped us to understand the notoriously difficult ideas of German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. In a focused lecture, Peters traced Hegel’s argument for the institution of private property as a necessary condition for human freedom. Hegel endorses the idea that institutional constraints allow for freedom
Aileen Douglas ‘A home of her own: female independence in Jane Austen’s Emma’
On 19 May ECLA welcomed Dr. Aileen Douglas of Trinity College Dublin, for a lecture on Jane Austen’s Emma. As in other Austen novels, Emma explores the relationship between marriage and property, connecting the development of the characters and the unfolding plot with wealth and proprietary status. However, Emma represents an exception, in that the
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay. Kleist, Kohlhaas, and the quest for justice” by Sean Allan
On Wednesday 14 May, Sean Allan from Warwick University gave a comprehensive introductory lecture to Michael Kohlhaas and to the background of its author, Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist. Pointing out the paradoxical subtleties within the character of Kohlhaas, Sean Allan warned against one-sided readings of the novella’s plot, which regard the character as either a
ECLA Annual Conference Lecture: Petra Dobner on ‘Crossing the Jordan: Global Water and Transnational Constitutionalism’
On Friday 9 May Dr. Petra Dobner visited ECLA to deliver a guest lecture, ‘Crossing the Jordan: Global Water and Transnational Constitutionalism’, as part of Annual Conference. It was fitting that Dr. Dobner’s lecture should be the last of the Annual Conference series, as it served to bring together many aspects of water addressed throughout
ECLA Annual Conference Lecture: Ing. Michal Kravcík
On 8 May 2008, the fourth in the lecture series of the ECLA Annual Conference on Water, Ing. Michal Kravcík expounded a new paradigm of thinking about water. In the old water paradigm, we believed that humanity has little impact on the natural water cycle and that this cycle has a negligible effect on global