2nd Condorcet Day

March 16, 2017, from 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Polytech, Room 001 and Peytavin Lecture Hall
This second Condorcet Day is taking place against the backdrop of a lively election season, yet one marked by growing uncertainty that calls into question the role of democracy and democratic debate. In light of these current events, this year’s theme will explore issues related to science, ethics, and politics.
Condorcet wrote in his Five Memoirs on Public Instruction: “Education, taken in its fullest sense, is not limited solely to positive instruction—that is, the teaching of factual truths and arithmetic—but encompasses all political, moral, and religious opinions. However, the freedom of these opinions would be nothing more than an illusion if society were to take control of the younger generations and dictate to them what they must believe. Anyone who enters society bearing opinions instilled by his education is no longer a free man; he is a slave to his masters, and his chains are all the more difficult to break because he himself does not feel them, and because he believes he is obeying his own reason when in fact he is merely submitting to that of another.”
Like the first Condorcet Day, this event is open to all University staff and, more broadly, to various stakeholders in the school district.
It is intended to be a forum for discussion and debate on the various issues raised by the university’s missions of transmitting knowledge, developing knowledge, and the role of that knowledge in the world.
This day will be an opportunity for expression and democratic debate. Unfortunately, such opportunities for debate are gradually disappearing from various forums due to their increasingly fast-paced nature.
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