President Groarke Joins Top Scholars for Emotion and Argumentation Workshop
President Groarke shares thoughts with experts and students at special workshop
Top scholars on emotional arguments were joined by Trent faculty and students for a workshop and healthy debate on emotion and argumentation on October 6 in Blackburn Hall.
Trent University’s president and vice-chancellor, Dr. Leo Groarke kicked-off the workshop as the first speaker of the day, speaking on “Reason over passion? Logos over pathos?" and was followed by numerous top experts on emotional arguments from other institutions as well as Trent’s own Dr. Moira Howes, dean of Arts and Science, who spoke on “Anger and Argumentation."
“The workshop identified striking new avenues of inquiry regarding emotion and argumentation,” said Professor Howes. “The discussion was vibrant and we are feeling quite hopeful and inspired. This says a lot, for many people -- including and maybe especially argumentation theorists -- are deeply troubled by the current tenor of public debate. We seek to improve it, and there is even more reason now to think that we can.”
The workshop was sponsored by the Kenneth Mark Drain Chair in Ethics and the Office of the Dean of Arts and Science - Humanities.