Lakehead University’s Morris Lecture Featuring Philosopher Mark Kingwell
Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013 – Thunder Bay, ON
One of Canada’s most famous philosophers, Mark Kingwell, will be the guest speaker at this year’s Morris Lecture, hosted by Lakehead University’s Department of Philosophy.
“Mark Kingwell is Canada's pre-eminent public intellectual, one of our best philosophers, an excellent writer, and a dynamic speaker,” said Lakehead Philosophy Professor Todd Dufresne.
“Kingwell’s work combines scholarship and an unusual understanding of contemporary issues ranging from politics to culture. In this presentation, he promises to address a common problem of everyday life: procrastination.
“Who couldn't benefit from some quality time thinking about why it is we often put off doing things until tomorrow,” Professor Dufresne said.
Many readers know Kierkegaard as the philosopher of irony, faith, and anxiety, but he was also intimately acquainted with the mundane conditions of boredom and procrastination. Kingwell describes his lecture as an exploration of the “deeper meanings of why we put things off and how we can disappear into the full fridge in which there is, apparently forever, nothing to eat.”
The annual Morris Lecture is free to the public and usually draws large crowds.
“With Kingwell as our special guest this year, I am expecting a full house. The last time he spoke at Lakehead in 2008, it was a very popular lecture,” Dufresne said.
Kingwell has appeared on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin many times. He has written several books, including In Pursuit of Happiness: Better Living from Plato to Prozac, The World We Want: Restoring Citizenship in a Fractured Age, and Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City. He is a professor of philosophy and associate chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto.
Morris Lecture - We Shall Look Into It Tomorrow: On the Art of Procrastination
Date: Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013
Time: 7-8 pm
Cost: Free
Location: ATAC 2001
The 2013 Morris Lecture is sponsored by Lakehead University’s Dr. Gillian Siddall, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Department of English and the Department of Sociology.
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Media: To arrange an interview, please contact Brandon Walker, Media Relations Officer, at (807) 343-8177.
Lakehead University is a comprehensive university with a reputation for a multidisciplinary teaching approach that emphasizes collaborative learning and independent critical thinking. More than 8,700 students and 1,850 faculty and staff learn and work at campuses located in Orillia, and Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is home to the west campus of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Lakehead University promotes innovative research that supports local and regional socio-economic needs. In Orillia, development continues on building a campus that meets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) standards. For more information about Lakehead University, visit www.lakeheadu.ca.