A lecture by Professor Lorraine Smith Pangle, University of Texas at Austin

If we could bring Aristotle in as a consultant, what advice might he give on the current struggles of American democracy? While our Founders drew largely on Lockean assumptions about human beings as solitary and self-interested by nature, Aristotle teaches that a human being is by nature a political animal. This lecture will explore how Aristotle’s rich teaching on human nature could help us develop more realistic, constructive understandings of what it means for humans to be created equal, how we might best think about rights, and what the best form of American freedom might look like.

Lorraine Smith Pangle is professor of government and co-director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas at the University of Texas at Austin. Her teaching and research focus on the history of political and moral philosophy, with special interests in Homer, Plato, Xenophon, Aristotle, and the American Founders. Her most recent book is Reason and Character: The Moral Foundations of Aristotelian Political Philosophy.