The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America
Thursday, April 25, 2024
In this lecture, brothers Hyrum Lewis, Brigham Young University, Idaho, and Verlan Lewis, Utah Valley University, discussed how, contrary to popular and scholarly belief, there are no durable political philosophies behind our political categories of liberal and conservative and left and right. Instead, these categories have evolved in often strange and incoherent ways. Hence, what binds liberals and conservatives is tribal loyalty rather than consistent principles. These categories, in turn, generate confusion and hostility and undermine our ability to engage in reasoned debate.
The Truth-Seeking Mission of the University
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Dr. Robert P. George holds Princeton’s celebrated McCormick Professorship of Jurisprudence and is the Founder and Director of the University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.
In his lecture at the Institute of American Civics, Dr. George discussed the vital importance of colleges and universities being sites of free and open discussion of the most important questions of human life. He also addressed concrete measures universities can take to strengthen and improve their position as models for civil and robust discourse. This lecture was supported by the Office of the Provost.
Is the American Dream Dying?
Thursday, March 21, 2024
This debate featured two authors, Michael Strain from the American Enterprise Institute and David Leonhardt, New York Times, with opposing positions on the contemporary viability of the American Dream. “The Morning.” Kaylee McGhee, a senior fellow at Independent Women’s Forum, moderated the debate.