Distinguished Lecture Series

Dr. Arthur C. Brooks

Spring 2023 Distinguished Lecturer

Arthur Brooks is a Harvard professor, PhD social scientist, bestselling author, and columnist at The Atlantic who specializes in using the highest levels of science and philosophy to provide people with actionable strategies to live their best lives.

Most Recent Books:

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life (2022). At the height of his career at the age of 50, Arthur Brooks embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how to transform his future from one of disappointment over waning abilities into an opportunity for progress. From Strength to Strength is the result, a practical roadmap for the rest of your life.

The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America (2015).  In The Conservative Heart, Arthur C. Brooks contends that after years of focusing on economic growth and traditional social values, it is time for a new kind of conservatism--one that helps the vulnerable without mortgaging our children's future.

The Road for Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise (2012). The follow-up to the hugely influential The Battle: a candid assessment of how mainstream America can take the philosophy of free enterprise and translate it into political action.

Articles:

Some of Dr. Brooks' featured articles are available through his web page.

Dr. Brooks' "How to Build a Life" columns are accessible to Boise State faculty, staff and students through an Albertsons Library subscription. Those without a Boise State affiliation are encouraged to consult your local public library for access.

Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah

Fall 2022 Distinguished Lecturer

Dr. Appiah is a professor of Philosophy and Law at NYU, and he considers readers’ ethical quandaries in a weekly column as “The Ethicist” for The New York Times Magazine. From 2009 to 2012, Appiah served as President of the PEN American Center, the world’s oldest human rights organization.

Most Recent Books:

The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity, Creed, Country Color, Class, Culture (2018).  The Lies That Bind is an incandescent exploration of the nature and history of the identities that define us. It challenges our assumptions about how identities work.

Experiments in Ethics (2008). In this book, the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah explores how the new empirical moral psychology relates to the age-old project of philosophical ethics

Buying Freedom: The Ethics and Economics of Slave Redemption (2007)  With Martin Bunzl. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Martin Bunzl bring together economists, anthropologists, historians, and philosophers for the first comprehensive examination of the practical and ethical implications of slave redemption

The Ethics of Identity (2007). Gender, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality: all the elements of our social identities play a central role in the choices by which we make out lives. This text explores the ethical significance of identity for our obligations to others and to ourselves.

Articles:

Some of Dr. Appiah's articles are available through his NYU School of Law page.

Dr. Appiah's "The Ethicist" columns are accessible to Boise State faculty, staff and students through an Albertsons Library subscription. Those without a Boise State affiliation are encouraged to consult your local public library for access.