Archive for January, 2006

Can Our Economy Remain Strong?

dnorris10 January 31st, 2006

Robert Samuelson, a columnist for Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, and several other publications, will present “The Aging of the United States, Europe, and Japan - and the Implications for the Future of Democracy, Economic Growth, and Foreign Policy” at the next Great Decisions lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at The College of Wooster.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Gault Recital Hall of Scheide Music Center (525 E. University St.), beginning at 7:30 p.m.In his address, Samuelson will review the major demographic and budgetary trends implied by the aging of the “baby boom” generation and then speculate on the ramifications for the economy, politics and foreign policy. He will focus mainly on the United States but will also draw some parallels and contrasts with Europe and Japan.

Samuelson joined Newsweek as a columnist in 1984, and is one of the magazine’s most recognized writers for his biweekly columns analyzing and reporting socioeconomic issues. He has two books: The Good Life and its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement 1945-1995 (1997) and Untruth: Why the Conventional Wisdom is (almost always) Wrong (2001). He has earned a number of awards for journalism, including the John Hancock Award for Best Business and Financial Columnist and the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Commentary. A 1967 graduate of Harvard, where he earned a B.A. in government, Samuelson began his journalism career as a reporter on The Washington Post’s Business Desk in 1969. After four years, he left the paper to freelance. He has been published by The Sunday Times (London), The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic and The Columbia Journalism Review among others. He joined The National Journal as an economics correspondent in 1976 and began writing the “Economic Focus” column before becoming a contributing editor in 1981.

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Who’s Responsible for Human Rights?

dnorris10 January 25th, 2006

Erin Kelly, associate professor of philosophy at Tufts University, will open the 2006 Great Decisions Lecture Series by examining “Who’s Responsible for Human Rights?” on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at The College of Wooster. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Gault Recital Hall of Scheide Music Center (525 E. University St.), beginning at 7:30 p.m.

“Human rights are universal,” said Kelly. “We ascribe them to all persons. But what is the proper distribution of the responsibility to protect human rights? Who is obligated to respond to a human rights crisis? I argue that those who are responsible for addressing a human rights crisis must be authorized to do so by the international community. Further, I believe that as members of the international community deliberating about how to distribute responsibility to respond, we should determine which parties with resources to help have assumed an obligation to assist by virtue of their participation and stature within the international community. We should look at which states have taken on a leadership role and have asserted moral authority within international relations. The obligation of these states to serve the cause of human rights is a condition of their legitimacy as world leaders, including their authority to compel other societies to comply with international law.”

Kelly, who specializes in ethics, political philosophy and the philosophy of law, focuses her research on social contract theories of justice and morality. She has written papers on such topics as toleration, human rights, moral responsibility, and philosophies of punishment. She earned her B.A. at Stanford, her M.A. at Columbia, and her Ph.D. at Harvard, where she earned the Emily and John Carrier Dissertation Prize. In 2003 she was a faculty fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and the Professions at Harvard University.

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