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Professor Hill to Talk About Latest Work During Faculty Book Talk on November 10
10/25/2016
Professor John Hill will discuss his latest work, After the Natural Law: How the Classical Worldview Supports Our Modern and Moral Political Values, during a Faculty Book Talk at IU McKinney on November 10.
Professor Hill’s talk is titled “What We Are Losing: The Moral, Legal and Political Consequences of a Consistent Secular Philosophy.”
“As a law professor and (at that time) a committed atheist, I spent a lot of time writing about things like freedom, human rights, human dignity,” Professor Hill said. “Then one day it dawned on me that none of these ideals really make sense if God doesn’t exist.”
Our legal system, along with our deepest moral and political principles, are grounded on a conception of the world that is now quickly vanishing, Professor Hill says. The assumptions of the past -- that there is a God, a human soul and an objective moral order -- have been under assault by philosophers for two or three centuries. But only in the last century have these attacks found their way into the domain of American law, politics and culture, he asserts. The result is that we continue to use the vocabulary of the older worldview -- using terms like "free will and responsibility," "the self," "human dignity," and "liberty of conscience" -- while redefining these terms in ways that are more consistent with the secular-materialism of our age. But what would a genuinely "pure" secular political and legal philosophy look like? The talk will explore this and suggest that most of us would not be willing to pay the moral and human price of a consistent secularism.
Professor Hill holds a J.D. and a doctorate in philosophy, both of which he received from Georgetown University. In addition to being a professor of law at IU McKinney, where he teaches constitutional law, civil procedure, torts, jurisprudence and ethical and legal issues at the end of life, he also is a Grimes Fellow, and an adjunct professor of philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at IUPUI.
The event will begin at 5 p.m. in the Wynne Courtroom at Inlow Hall. The program is free and open to the public, and 1.0 hour of CLE is available for attendees who register.
