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Multimedia Resources
Ethics Colloquium Series
Ethics After the End of Progress: Utopia and the Solace of Catastrophe
October 23, 2009
SPEAKER:
Peter Y. Paik, Associate Professor of French, Italian & Comparative Literature
ABSTRACT:
This talk examines the ethical and political dilemmas that emerge once
hopes for perpetual economic growth have been abandoned and scarcity
becomes a dominant factor in the global economy. What sort of history
is likely to return once the "end of history" associated with liberal
democratic capitalism comes to a close? What is the future of
consumer society in an age of scarcity, and what kind of politics
might such a development precipitate? The talk will draw from the
writings of philosopher John Gray, the fiction of J. G. Ballard and
Jose Saramago, and films such as Children of Men and Save the Green
Planet.
Link to streaming audio: