Location: Room GSB 2.126, McCombs Graduate School of Business, University of Texas at Austin Speaker Profile (via Institute for Justice) Joshua Windham is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. Windham has litigated in defense of economic liberty and property rights, with a focus on state constitutions. In 2020, he secured a major Pennsylvania […]
Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and the Truth of the Human Person with Dr. Scott J. Roniger
About this lecture: Perhaps the most fundamental themes in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov are the struggle to disclose the truth of human nature and the way in which social life must be rooted in the truth of what it is to be a person. In this lecture, I will argue that the members of the Karamazov family […]
Natural Law as Hermeneutical with R.J. Snell
Explore a fresh perspective on natural law through the lens of thinkers like John Finnis and Martin Rhonheimer. Instead of metaphysics or anthropology, discover how cultural context and personal insight shape our understanding of first principles. The natural law is generally presented as highly certain and universal in its first principles, as essentially known by […]
PhD Student Symposium 2020
The PhD Student Symposium offered various sessions, breakout groups, and panel discussions that suited students of several tracks.
Lunch Talk with Dr. Ana Moreland: “Thomas Aquinas on the Scope and Limits of Forgiveness as Seen through Anna Karenina”
Dr. Moreland will examine Anna Karenina through the eyes of Thomas Aquinas on the theological virtue of charity. Dolly, the secondary character and unacknowledged heroine of Tolstoy’s novel, is a paradigmatic example of what it means to see the world through the eyes of self-sacrificial love. Dolly is the literary exemplar of the perfection of charity. […]
Socialism Sucks (Or does it?)
To start this new semester of Policy@McCombs, SMU economist Robert Lawson will discuss his most recent book “Socialism Sucks.” Socialism has a disastrous track record. Yet a growing number of Americans, especially younger ones, find it appealing. “How can so many Americans view socialism so favorably, when in practice it has led to misery and […]
Panel: Free Speech—What It Is and Is Not.
Location: Robert Rowling Hall RRH 4.408 Thursday, October 24th, 4pm – 5.30pm Join four leading Objectivist Intellectuals as they explore the widely misunderstood concept of “Free Speech” and how it applies to some of today’s most pressing controversies: Are attempts to stifle disinformation a threat to free speech? Does it matter if these attempts are […]
The Education of the Ambitious Soul with Shilo Brooks, PhD
Location: RRH 4.314 or via Zoom What is the proper education for young people who aspire to achieve political greatness? This lecture will examine the autobiographies of great leaders of the past in search of insights into the ways their educations and early lives prepared them for the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of great leadership. […]
Debate: ‘Do open borders benefit humanity by reducing poverty and boosting the economy?’ with Bryan Caplan and Sohrab Ahmari
Location: Crum Auditorium, RRH 1.400 Bryan Caplan is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University and New York Times Bestselling author. Caplan wrote The Myth of the Rational Voter, named “the best political book of the year” by the New York Times, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, The Case Against Education, Open Borders (co-authored with SMBC’s Zach Weinersmith), Labor Econ Versus the World, How Evil […]
“International Relations and the Church” with Roberto Regoli, PhD.
Rowling Hall 5.420, 300 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX 78705, USA Co-sponsored with the Austin Institute, the inaugural lecture of the academic year is one not to be missed. Professor, author, and historian Fr. Roberto Regoli will guide us through some of the intricacies of Papal diplomacy, the oldest in the world. […]