What kind of virtue is political moderation and how can we study it? What does it mean to be a moderate voice in politics? What are the limits and benefits of moderation? And can moderation ever be a winning card in politics?
If you go
What: Moderation: In Praise of a Forgotten Virtue
When: Thursday, Oct. 19 6:30 p.m. reception; 7:30 p.m. presentation
Where: University Center’s Tennessee Room
Admission: Free and open to the public.
Info (423) 425-4281
In his lecture, In Praise of a Forgotten Virtue: Moderation in the Twenty-First Century, Aurelian Craiutu will untangle some of these questions as he explores the forgotten virtue and the relationship it has, should have, with modern politics.
“Moderation is a contested concept reflecting the ambiguity of our moral and political vocabulary,” says Aurelian Craiutu.
“Today the only famous line that returns time and again in any discussion of moderation belongs to Barry Goldwater: ‘Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.’ Goldwater’s skepticism toward moderation, not devoid of a certain rhetorical twist, forces us to acknowledge that moderation is a complex virtue with many facets.”
In his recent book, Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), Craiutu argues that moderation remains crucial for today’s encounters with new forms of extremism and fundamentalism across the world.
This lecture is sponsored by David W Carrithers Lecture Series in Law, Politics and Public Policy along with the Department of Political Science and Public Service.
About the Speaker
Aurelian Craiutu is Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, where is also affiliated with the Russian and East European Institute, the Institute of European Studies and Ostrom the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. His main research interests are in modern French political thought. He has published extensively on and has edited the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, Madame de Staël and the French Doctrinaires.
He is a native of Romania and was educated in Romania and France prior to coming to the US in 1993. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton and then taught at Duke and University of Northern Iowa prior to joining Indiana University in 2001.
His most recent books are A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830 (Princeton University Press, 2012) and Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016).
