Lumsden Lecture 2021 -Krista Thomason

Of Blue Skies: The Peril and Promise of Contempt - Krista Thomason, Associate Professor at Swarthmore College 

Every year the Department of Philosophy hosts the prestigious Michael Lumsden Memorial Lecture. The annual event is in memory of Michael Lumsden, who graduated in Philosophy at Nottingham in 1993 and died shortly thereafter; it is the most important lecture in the department’s calendar. It will be hosted in online via Microsoft Teams 17th June 4pm - 6pm.

Abstract

Although contempt has a bad reputation in the history of philosophy, contemporary moral philosophers have defended it as a morally appropriate emotion. In this paper, Thomason draws on the work of W.E.B Du Bois to argue that contempt is valuable as an emotion of self-protection. Contrary to contemporary views, they argue that contempt’s value does not license the conclusion that it is a morally appropriate emotion.

Krista Thomason published an excellent and well-received book title Naked: The Dark Side of Shame and Moral Life (OUP, 2018), and she has been awarded a prestigious National Humanities Center Fellowship in 2021-22.

Registration is now closed.