The Philosophy Department is pleased to announce its 2019 Aquinas Lecturer and recipient of its Aquinas Medal: John P. O'Callaghan, of the University of Notre Dame. His lecture, “The Mercy of Boo Radley,” is scheduled for Thursday, February 7, in the Multipurpose Room of SB Hall.
John O'Callaghan is an associate professor of philosophy and the director of the Jacques Maritain Center at the University of Notre Dame. In 2010, he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as a permanent member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Professor O'Callaghan has also served as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. He is the author of Thomistic Realism and The Linguistic Turn: Toward a More Perfect Form of Existence as well as a host of scholarly papers and book chapters.
In his lecture, Professor O'Callaghan will reflect on ethical themes that arise from Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The curious figure of Boo Radley will come to the forefront. Why is it Boo--and not Atticus, their own father--who saves Scout and Jem? Contrasting Atticus with Boo provides an opportunity to reflect philosophically on the difference between a morality of duty and obligation prompted by stoic detachment and a morality of compassion and mercy prompted by friendship.
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