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DeArmey to Deliver Distinguished Professorship Lecture Nov. 19

Wed, 11/17/2010 - 09:43am | By: Tearanny Street

Dr. Michael DeArmey will present the Charles W. Moorman Alumni Distinguished Professorship lecture at 1:45 p.m., Fri., November 19 in Gonzales Auditorium. (Submitted photo)

Dr. Michael DeArmey, professor of philosophy, will deliver the Charles W. Moorman Distinguished Alumni Professorship lecture at 1:45 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19 in Gonzales Auditorium at The University of Southern Mississippi.

In 2009, DeArmey became the seventh faculty member to receive the Charles W. Moorman Distinguished Alumni Professor in the Humanities by the College of Arts and Letters.

“The university is always grateful whenever we receive support to help faculty achieve research and publication goals,” said Dr. Denise von Herrmann, dean of the College of Arts and Letters. “Their achievements strengthen the university's reputation.”

Moorman, a member of the English faculty from 1954-90, is a renowned authority on the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, who served as chair of the department and later as vice president of Academic Affairs for the university.

Established in 1988, the Moorman Distinguished Alumni Professorship is awarded biennially for a two-year term and provides as much as $34,000 for a research project proposed by a senior professor from the departments of history, English, foreign languages and philosophy. Recipients must also host a public event that showcases their research. DeArmey will present a lecture titled, “Evil and Human Dignity.”

“Human dignity is rarely defined, even in important documents like the United Nations Charter,” DeArmey said. “My lecture defines dignity in terms of autonomously controlled intentions.” 

A former post-doctoral fellow at Yale University, holding master's and doctorate degrees from Tulane University, DeArmey's areas of specialization are American philosophy, philosophical theories of human nature and ethics.

Internationally renowned philosopher and Florida State University professor Dr. Alfred Mele will follow DeArmey with his own lecture titled, “Free Will and the Neuro-Sciences” at 3 p.m.  A reception will follow the lectures.

“Professor Mele is the leading thinker about intentions, self-control, and autonomy,” said DeArmey.

Mele is the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University and director of the Big Questions in Free Will Project (2010-13). He is the author of Irrationality (1987), Springs of Action (1992), Autonomous Agents (1995), Self-Deception Unmasked (2001), Motivation and Agency (2003), Free Will and Luck (2006), and Effective Intentions: The Power of Conscious Will (2009).  He also is the editor or coeditor of The Philosophy of Action (1997), Mental Causation (1993), The Oxford Handbook of Rationality (2004), Rationality and the Good (2007), and Free Will and Consciousness: How Might They Work? (2010).

For more information on the Charles W. Moorman Distinguished Alumni Professorship lecture, contact the Department of Philosophy and Religion at 601.266.4518.