Monteverde Plenary Address: The Content of Civility

Marcia McDonald, Belmont University

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.

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Sep 24th, 10:00 AM

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.