Cornel West, the 2021-2022 Presidential Visiting Scholar at The New School, will give a public, in-person lecture, “Philosophy in Our Time of Imperial Decay,” in Greenwich Village on Thurs., March 24.
Dwight A. McBride, The New School president, will give welcoming remarks. The event will be moderated by Simon Critchley, the Hans Jonas professor of philosophy at The New School.
The lecture will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in
The New School Auditorium, in Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, at 66 W. 12th St.
The event is free and open to the public, though registration is required. To register click here.
Proof of vaccination and a booster are required for campus access, no exceptions granted. Audience members must remain masked during the event.
West is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer chairperson at Union Theological Seminary. He teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in philosophy of religion, African American critical thought and a wide range of subjects, including but not limited to, the classics, philosophy, politics, cultural theory, literature and music.
West is the former professor of the practice of public philosophy at Harvard University and professor emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy at Princeton. He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics, “Race Matters” and “Democracy Matters,” and for his memoir, “Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud.” His most recent book, “Black Prophetic Fire,” offers an unflinching look at 19th and 20th-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies.
West is a frequent guest on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span and “Democracy Now.” He has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. — a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.
Martin Luther King marched side by side with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel on behalf of human rights, and in opposition to war.
In March of 1968, King said, “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel, and [I] never mind saying it, as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land almost can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”
No one knows how Martin Luther King would feel about the world we are living in today, but the anger and divisiveness emanating from Cornel West is hardly reminiscent of Martin Luther King.
I don’t think it can rightfully be said that the former professor is “keeping alive the legacy” of a man who truly did understand love and justice.