The Department of Philosophy welcomes Professor John Corvino from Wayne State University for a virtual talk as part of our annual Anbar Lecture Series. The title of his talk is, Punching the Nazi: On Civility and Its Limits.

Please email philosophy@syr.edu or Michael Rieppel at morieppe@syr.edu for the Zoom link.

About the Talk

Civility is normally understood to be a virtue. Punching someone is a paradigmatically uncivil act. Yet most people agree that Nazis should be punched. (Here, you may take “punching the Nazi” as a metaphor for any ostensibly uncivil act toward someone who ostensibly deserves it.)

Should we conclude, therefore, that some virtues are optional when dealing with Nazis? Or should we rethink civility, either by denying that it is a virtue or by denying that punching Nazis is uncivil? What is civility for, and what are its limits?

In this talk, Dr. Corvino proposes some tentative answers to these questions by examining civility’s relationship to both moral virtue and community standards.

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