CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Ethics will be at the heart of the first of two April lectures in the Center for Advanced Study/MillerComm lecture series at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The second lecture will focus on the health consequences of pesticide use. The lectures are the last in the series for the spring semester.
On April 21, Jonathan Lear will speak on “Ethics and the Collapse of Civilization,” looking at how a group can struggle with how to live when its values and traditional way of life collapse or lose meaning. Lear, the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the department of philosophy at the University of Chicago, will draw from the experience of the Crow tribe. His talk begins at 4 p.m. in Room 100 of Gregory Hall, 810 S. Wright St., Urbana.
The topic on April 25 will be “Toxic Drift: The Lasting Legacy of Post-World War II Pesticide Use,” presented by Pete Daniel, historian and curator from the Division of Work and Industry at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Daniel will discuss the failure of government to protect human health and wildlife from the dangers of pesticide use, and will explore the implications for recent issues such as mad cow disease and genetic engineering. His talk begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium of the Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana.
The MillerComm lecture series began in 1973 and is supported with funds from the George A. Miller Endowment and several co-sponsoring campus units. The lectures provide a forum for discourse on topics spanning the university’s many disciplines.
All CAS talks are free and open to the public.
For additional information, or to confirm scheduling details prior to a lecture, check the events section of the CAS Web site.
