Skip to main content

Philosophy Conference Participants Discuss Link Between Alienation and the Virtues

04/18/2023

The philosophy department at Saint Louis University and its sponsored journal, Res Philosophica, held a two-day conference on March 30-31 on “Alienation and the Virtues: Personal, Social, and Spiritual.”

The aim for the conference was to bring together philosophers from various stages in their careers to reflect on perennial questions about the link between alienation and the virtues, while considering human existence as personal, social, and spiritual.

Saint Louis University’s own John Stein, S.J., gave a talk on “Faith, Alienation, and Anxiety: 19thCentury Dialectics; 21st Century Tensions.”  Photo submitted.

Saint Louis University’s own John Stein, S.J., gave a talk on “Faith, Alienation, and Anxiety: 19thCentury Dialectics; 21st Century Tensions.”  Photo submitted.

On Thursday, papers were presented on “Authenticity: An Aspiration that Can Alienate Us from Virtue,” by Daniel De Haan; “Luxury, Alienation, and the Good Life,” by Celeste Harvey; and “Spiritual Alienation: What Is It? How Can It Be Overcome?” by David McPherson.

The following day, presentations were on “Love of Enemy and Alienation,” by Anne Jeffrey; “Faith, Alienation, and Anxiety: 19th Century Dialectics; 21st Century Tensions,” by Saint Louis University’s own John Stein, S.J.; and “Joseph Ratzinger on What Limits the State,” which was the keynote Wade Memorial Lecture given by F. Russell Hittinger.

The papers will be published in a future issue of Res Philosophica. 

“I was very pleased with the quality of the presentations and the philosophical discussions that developed during the question-and-answer sessions," said event organizer Gregory Beabout, Ph.D.

The conference was well attended by students, faculty, alumni, and other participants.