Guest Lecturer:
Klaus Berghahn

October 21, 2004
7pm in Reid 104

"Peace in the Age of Terrorism- Immanuel Kant's Peace Utopia"

Are the ideals of humanity that brought about the French and American Revolutions obsolete in 2004? Do the ideas of liberté, fraternité and egalité have any validity in a world occupied with terrorism, or are these ideas simply naive?

On Thursday, October 21 at 7 pm in Reid 104, Dr. Klaus Berghahn (University of Wisconsin- Madison) will deliver a lecture concerning German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant's short essay Zum ewigen Frieden (On Perpetual Peace- 1795). In this short essay devoted to the possibility of lasting peace, Kant offers a set of conditions prerequisite for bringing about a permanent end to warfare. In this work, Kant advocates a confederation of free states, bound together by a covenant expressly forbidding war. Dr. Berghahn's talk will discuss this utopian idealism in light of the present state of world affairs.

Dr. Klaus Berghahn is a prolific scholar who has published on a wide array of topics, ranging from utopian thought to 18th and 19th century philosophy, culture and literature. He currently holds the Weinstein-Bascom Chair for German-Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin- Madison and since 1998 has been the director for the Center for German and European Studies.