The Simone Weil Lectures on Human Value

Faculty of Theology and Philosophy

School of Philosophy

First instituted in 2000, the Simone Weil Lecture on Human Value is held annually in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Each year, a distinguished international scholar is invited to give a public lecture and academic seminar at ACU. The lectures are not intended to be a forum for engaging specifically with the work of Simone Weil, but are inspired by Weil's commitment to recognising the full humanity of our fellow human being, by her moral idealism and by her commitment to social justice issues.

Information about the 2012 Lecture series will be posted in early 2012

2011 Lecture On Forgiveness: Narrative and Lyrical

Kevin Hart FAHA

About Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart FAHA is Eric D'Arcy Professor of Philosophy at ACU, and Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies at University of Virginia. Kevin is a philosopher, a theologian and a poet of international renown. Among his books are The Trespass of the Sign: Deconstruction, Theology, and Philosophy (Fordham UP), The Exorbitant: Emmanuel Levinas between Jews and Christians (Fordham UP), The Dark Gaze: Maurice Blanchot and the Sacred (Chicago UP) and Counter-Experiences: Reading Jean-Luc Marion (Notre Dame UP). He co-edits the series "Thresholds" for Notre Dame UP and edits a series on phenomenology and theology for Northwestern UP. He sits on the comité scientifique of the works of Emmanuel Lévinas (Grasset). His poetry includes Flame Tree: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe) and the recently published Morning Knowledge (Notre Dame UP). Several new scholarly and poetic works are forthcoming.

Lecture Abstract

A common view of forgiveness involves the idea that it happens spontaneously; it is personal, immediate, a gift, miraculous, without reason. There is much to be said for this view, which I call "lyrical forgiveness". However, reflection on moral problems of forgiveness leads one to counter-examples that call forth another perspective, one that I call "narrative forgiveness". In what ways is forgiveness embedded in narratives, both personal and inter-personal? How does a narrative approach to forgiveness allow us to understand better the nature of forgiving and the need to forgive?

Previous Simone Weil Lectures

• 2010 To Whom we must answer? Responsibility, Community and Criminal Law
  by Antony Duff
• 2009 Knowledge and Prejudice
  by Miranda Fricker
• 2008 Uprootedness, Narratives and National Conflict
  by Jonathan Glover
• 2007 (Lecture cancelled)
• 2006 Terrorism and Religion
  by Susan Mendus
• 2005 Moral Clarity
  by Susan Neiman
• 2004 The Conversation of Mankind
  by Stephen Mulhall
• 2003 "I Want to Die, I Hate My Life": Phaedra's Malaise
  by Simon Critchley
• 2002 A Wonderful Life: Philosophy and Biography
  by Ray Monk
• 2001 A Moral Witness
  by Avishai Margalit
• 2000 Human Action and the Kantian Imperatives
  by Christine Korsgaard