Breadcrumb


Religious Studies Program

The Cal Poly Philosophy Department houses a Religious Studies program with a wide variety of courses in GE and a Religious Studies minor.

Click to visit the website

Between the Species

Between the Species online journal logoAn online philosophy journal about the relationship between humans and animals.
Click to visit the website

Ethics Group


Cal Poly's Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group focuses on the implications and impact of emerging sciences and technologies.
Click to visit the website

Research Workshop: "Enslaved by Freedom: Obedience and Choice in the Work of Étienne de Boétie and Ralph Waldo Emerson"

Chris Morales

Friday, March 6, 2020 12:10-2:00 pm in Clyde P. Fisher Science Hall 033-0287


christophermorales@ucsb.edu

Abstract:  Living during the American Market Revolution, the famous transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) witnessed the development of American capitalism into more than just an economic system. During this period American society and culture were reorganized according to the logic of the market into networks that simultaneously made people more interdependent and more alienated from one another.In today's world certain experiences of freedom are the means of our oppression. At the same time, a true emancipation is conditioned by moments of necessity, obedience and kenosis (self-emptying). I will examine these claims first as grounded in the work of French political philosopher Étienne de Boétie (1530–1563) and then that of Emerson himself.

Bio: Chris Morales is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at UCSB. He holds degrees from Harvard and the University of Amsterdam. His research specialities are Continental philosophy and the history of Christian thought. He’s especially interested in issues of human finitude, emotions, and justice. His dissertation The Dialectics of Friendship, examines the religious, ethical, and political significance of friendship in the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Friedrich Nietzsche. Chris works as the writing specialist for the McNair Scholars Program at UCSB.

Related Content