Schools
OU’s Burke Lecture to Focus on Work Ethic in Contemporary Society
The lecture will be held from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, March 24, in Oakland Center Banquet Room A on OU's main campus
For its 2022 Richard J. Burke Lecture in Philosophy, Religion and Society, Oakland University will welcome Dr. Elizabeth Anderson, who will present her talk “What Should the Work Ethic Mean for Us Today?” The lecture will be held from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, March 24, in Oakland Center Banquet Room A on OU's main campus.
The work ethic was invented by Puritan theologians nearly 400 years ago. From the start, it contained contradictory ideas – one rationalizing the subjection of workers to drudgery for maximum profit; the other honoring workers for advancing human welfare and calling for their dignified and equitable treatment. Both ideas were developed and institutionalized over time in the U.S. and Europe, leaving a contradictory legacy today. Dr. Anderson shows how the neglected second work ethic tradition can be revived and updated for 21st-century American workers.
Dr. Anderson is the Max Shaye Professor of Public Philosophy and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author of “Value in Ethics and Economics” (Harvard University Press, 1993), “The Imperative of Integration” (Princeton UP, 2010), and “Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (And Why We Don’t Talk About It)” (Princeton UP, 2017) and numerous, widely reprinted articles in journals of philosophy, law, and economics.
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Dr. Anderson designed the University of Michigan’s Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program, and was its founding director. She has earned many distinctions, including being a MacArthur Fellow in 2019, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008, one of Prospect magazine’s “World’s Top 50 Thinkers” in 2020 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2020.
Designed to tackle some of today's compelling issues — from war to religion to sexual ethics — the Richard J. Burke Lecture in Philosophy, Religion and Society sparks serious, thought-provoking discussions between scholars, students and the community.
Admission is free, but reservations are requested. To reserve a space, contact Ann Zimmerman at (248) 370-3390 or zimmerm2@oakland.edu.
