Nobel laureate to present Oakland University's 2015 Richard J. Burke Lecture

Renowned economist Amartya Sen will present Oakland University’s 2015 Richard J. Burke Lecture in Philosophy, Religion and Society at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 17, in the Oakland Center Banquet Rooms.

His lecture “Moral Objectivity and Social Justice” will address two central questions: What does objectivity in moral and political reasoning demand? And what are its implications for conceptions of justice and injustice in the world?

“The Burke Lecture series brings great thinkers to campus to spark productive conversations, and Amartya Sen is one of the greatest scholars of our time,” said Mark Navin, associate professor of philosophy and acting chair of the Burke Lecture Committee. “He has done trailblazing work in philosophy and economics, and his scholarship is both theoretically rich and practically relevant. For example, his philosophically-informed work in welfare economics and development economics helped to shape the metrics used by the UN Development Programme and has changed how we think about food security and gender inequality in the developing world.”

Dr. Sen is the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. He is the 1998 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and has received a host of other honors, including the Bharat Ratna (India) Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur (France), the National Humanities Medal (USA), Ordem do Merito Cientifico (Brazil), Honorary Companion of Honour (UK), Aztec Eagle (Mexico), Edinburgh Medal (UK), the George Marshall Award (USA) and the Eisenhauer Medal (USA).

Additionally, Dr. Sen has served as president of the Econometric Society, the American Economic Association, the Indian Economic Association and the International Economic Association. He is the author of numerous books, which have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Richard J. Burke, Ph.D., was the first faculty member hired at Oakland and taught at the university for 46 years. He established an endowment for the annual Richard J. Burke Lecture Series in Philosophy, Religion, and Society, which has brought prominent social philosophers to campus, including Daniel Dennett, Peter Singer and Richard Falk. For more information on the Richard J. Burke Lecture series, visit oakland.edu/phil/burkelecture.

Admission is free, but reservations are requested. To reserve a space, contact Ann Zimmerman at (248) 370-3390 or zimmerm2@oakland.edu.