Provost to give Horowitz Memorial Lecture in philosophy

Ann E. CuddProvost Ann E. Cudd will return to her roots as a student and professor of philosophy when she gives the Pitt Philosophy Department’s annual Tamara Horowitz Memorial Lecture on Oct. 19.

Cudd, who was named Pitt’s provost this summer, was most recently professor of philosophy and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University.  She received her Ph.D. in philosophy in 1988 from Pitt, and was a former student of Tamara Horowitz, who taught at Pitt from 1985 until her death in 2000.

Cudd’s philosophical interests include social and political philosophy, philosophy of economics, philosophy of social science, decision theory, and feminist theory.

Her lecture is “Connected Self-Ownership and Our Obligations to Others.” The abstract says: “A self-owner is a moral person with intentions, desires, thoughts. But to have intentions, desires, thoughts a being has to relate to others through language and norm-guided behavior. Individual beings require the pre-existence of norms and norm-givers to bootstrap their selves, and norms and norm-givers and norm-takers are necessary to continue to support the self. That means, I argue, that the self who can be an owner is essentially connected.”

The event is at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at 1008 Cathedral of Learning.