Harold Stoner Clark Lectures

Corporate bodies (businesses, religious organizations, colleges, etc.) exercise a great deal of power in our lives. For good or ill, they shape our social relationships and have a significant impact on our democratic processes. But to what standards should we hold them? What responsibilities and duties may we legitimately impose on them, and what rights and freedoms may they claim for themselves? Philip Pettit will discuss these questions in two lectures. 

11:10 a.m. lecture – “Holding Corporate Bodies Responsible”

4 p.m. lecture – “Granting Corporate Bodies Rights”

Pettit is L. S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University and Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, Canberra. His books include Republicanism (1997), The Economy of Esteem with G. Brennan (2004), Group Agency with C. List (2011), On the People’s Terms (2012), Just Freedom (2014) and The Robust Demands of the Good (2015). He is a fellow of the Australian academies of Humanities and Social Sciences as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy and the Royal Irish Academy. He gave the Tanner Lectures in Berkeley in 2015 and will give the John Locke Lectures in Philosophy at Oxford in 2019. Common Minds: Themes from the Philosophy of Philip Pettit appeared from Oxford University Press in 2007.

The Harold Stoner Clark Lecture Series, endowed by the late Mr. Clark and sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, was established in 1985. Admission is free.