Albert Borgmann - March 16, 2009

Regents' Professor, Department of Philosophy, The University of MontanaPhoto of Albert Borgmann

"Politics and the Pursuit of Excellence"

8:00 PM Monday, March 16, 2009
University Theatre

The author of Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life, Real American Ethics, and other seminal works, Professor Borgmann will sum up what a lifetime of teaching and writing has taught him about the contributions that philosophy can make to the politics of the good society.

"Is Moral Perfectionism Incompatible with Democratic Equality?"

3:10 PM Monday, March 16, 2009
Gallagher Business Building 123

You are cordially invited to attend a seminar with Albert Borgmann. After earning a Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Munich in 1963, he taught at De Paul University and the University of Hawaii before arriving at UM in 1970. From 1987 to 1993, he served as the chairman of the Philosophy department. In 1996, he was awarded the rank of Regents’ Professor of Philosophy. Renowned for the rigor and brilliance of his teaching, he has been a revered mentor to generations of UM students. With his energetic leadership of the Philosophy Forum, he has made an invaluable contribution to the quickening of the University’s intellectual life. His international reputation as a prolific author of original scholarship rests on a vast array of publications, a sampling of which includes:

  • The Philosophy of Language: Historical Foundations and Contemporary Issues (1974)
  • Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry (1984; 5th printing 1997)
  • Crossing the Postmodern Divide (1992; 5th printing 1998; Chinese translation 2003)
  • Holding On to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium (1999)
  • Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology (2003)
  • Real American Ethics: Taking Responsibility for Our Country (2006)

He has published dozens of articles, essays, and reviews in such journals as Philosophy Today, Revue Internationale de Philosophie, Research in Philosophy and Technology, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Techne: Journal of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, and Christian Century.