
Monteverde Plenary Address: The Content of Civility
Location
Beaman A&B
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
24-9-2012 10:00 AM
Description
Given that the title of this year’s symposium recalls Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents, this talk will begin by reflecting on Freud’s proposal that most of what makes us “civilized” makes us unhappy. This talk will consider civility as one of the civilizing processes and explore the range of meanings of “civility”—its content, if you will, with emphasis on the first syllable—and its representation in key works of the humanities. We will then shift the emphasis to the second syllable—content—and consider what these representations show us—A process of narrowing human impulse? A means of making community possible? A way of compensating us for giving up individual desires? A means of social change? A fulcrum of social stability? This talk seeks to pose questions we can reflect on throughout the Humanities Symposium.
Recommended Citation
McDonald, Marcia, "Monteverde Plenary Address: The Content of Civility" (2012). Humanities Symposium. 33.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2012/2012/33
Monteverde Plenary Address: The Content of Civility
Beaman A&B
Given that the title of this year’s symposium recalls Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents, this talk will begin by reflecting on Freud’s proposal that most of what makes us “civilized” makes us unhappy. This talk will consider civility as one of the civilizing processes and explore the range of meanings of “civility”—its content, if you will, with emphasis on the first syllable—and its representation in key works of the humanities. We will then shift the emphasis to the second syllable—content—and consider what these representations show us—A process of narrowing human impulse? A means of making community possible? A way of compensating us for giving up individual desires? A means of social change? A fulcrum of social stability? This talk seeks to pose questions we can reflect on throughout the Humanities Symposium.
Comments
Convo: AL