Event Details

• Monday, October 19, 2026
  7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
  City: Peterborough
  The Gathering Space
  Building: Enwayaang
  Room: 102
  Cost: Free
• Tuesday, October 20, 2026
  4:30 PM - 6:30 PM
  City: Peterborough
  Bagnani Hall
  Building: Traill College
  Cost: Free
• Wednesday, October 21, 2026
  6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
  City: Peterborough
  Room 108
  Building: Enwayaang
  Cost: Free

More Information

The Political Promise of Aesthetic Engagement
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Philosophy Department's Gilbert Ryle Lecture Series

Speaker: Dr. Dominic McIver Lopes, FRSC, University Killam Professor at UBC
 
Lecture 1: Kant on Aesthetic Self-Legislation in Liberalism
Should Kant’s “pure judgements of taste” convince us that people with very different perspectives on value can share enough to live together?

Monday, October 19, 2026
7:00 p.m.
The Gathering Space (Room 102), Enwayaang Building

Lecture 2: Bhattacharyya on Aesthetic Swaraj
For K. C. Bhattacharyya, exercising freedom through aesthetic emotion is an exercise of cultural swaraj, independence from a colonial mindset.

Tuesday, October 20, 2026
4:30 p.m.
Bagnani Hall, Traill College

Lecture 3: The Political Promise of Aesthetic Value Pluralism
Being good at aesthetic diversity is one way to be good at promoting diversity in general. We have political reasons to promote diverse value perspectives, thus, to be good at aesthetic diversity.

Wednesday, October 21, 2026
6:30 p.m.
Room 108, Enwayaang Building

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Professor Dominic McIver Lopes FRSC, is the University Killam Professor at UBC, and is the author of several books, including Aesthetic Injustice (2024) and Being for Beauty: Aesthetic Agency and Value (2018). In recent work, he has crafted a theory of aesthetic value as embedded in social practices, and he has proposed a conception of aesthetic injustice as a factor in social injustice.
Professor Lopes is the author of twelve books and numerous articles in the areas of Aesthetics, Asian Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind/Cognitive Science, and Social and Political Philosophy. 

For more information visit the Community Speaker Series website. 

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Community Speaker Series

At Trent University, we believe in the power of lifelong learning and professional development for our alumni, staff, faculty, students, and community members. Each year, Trent offers public lectures featuring distinguished visiting scholars and experts, sharing ideas and knowledge on subjects such as the Environment, Business and Public Policy, Philosophy, Chemistry, and Mathematics. Thanks to generous philanthropic support, these talks are free and open to both the Trent community and the public. 

Contact Info

Email philosophy@trentu.ca.