David Brooks: A Moral Journey

Perennial CHF favorite David Brooks returns to Chicago to kick off our 25th anniversary celebration. He discusses his life story and what it takes to live a moral life.
This program is presented as part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series for the University of Chicago.
This program was recorded on October 21, 2014 as part of the 25th Anniversary Chicago Humanities Festival, Journeys: chf.to/2014Journeys
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[@bndnambiar]

Life is a struggle between Adam 1 and 2 and trying to find a middle path. Thank you sir for the eye opening speech

[@jeanmorin3247]

David Brooks has lifted the power of words to a level that surpasses divinity. What was always said before in a culture and vocabulary of religion is said here without reference to a god. We do not need, when listening, the endorsement of an Almighty, guaranteeing that what is being said is wise. It comes across by itself and from itself. There is no preaching. There is just the words of a single man who has seen the world as it is, and has had the virtue of thinking about it deeply. Prophets, gurus, cardinals and demagogues of all ilk do not measure up to this wisdom because they lean on the Ghost to underwrite their advocacy. Not here. He stands naked, submitting his thoughts for our consideration, in the solid self-assurance that they are nothing more, but nothing less, than honest musing. Long may he live, in life and reputation.

[@rheannenwilliams6559]

What a beautiful human. 👏🏽

[@b.terenceharwick3222]

David Brooks articulates how we live today in a culture -- too often locally as well as globally -- that emphasizes "resume virtues" rather than "eulogy virtues." Our vocabulary is rather full in its use of utilitarian or economic logic. Yet we've suffered loss of capacity to articulate the concrete inversions and paradoxes of experience, invariably confronted in pursuing a moral journey of life. He notes a recent loss of language in today's environment that makes this recovery more challenging in ways that we can communicate. In citing ancient and modern examples, Brooks suggests that sustainable pursuit of life involves an epistemological modesty -- as Kenneth Burke so long ago advocated -- as opposed to being wed to one or more methodologies of learning -- irrespective of who is advocating a preferred method for inquiry alone. It would seem that for Kenneth Burke, David Brooks, and some others, life is greater than any set of social expectations and is larger than categories through which we invariably approach life at any given moment of time. From this standpoint, learning is an unfolding process in learning with others involving humility rather than learning or knowledge conceived as a fixed object, grasped with pride, imposed upon others. Fortunately and unfortunately, the approach one adopts to learning about realities in life, internally and externally, has consequences for others, at micro and macro scales of action. The speaker identifies a set of commonalities which anyone may enact, across formal institutions and across time, that he finds meaningful in seeking an open and full-bodied approach to life.

[@lizgichora6472]

Thank you for a reflective talk.

[@Braglemaster123]

He's a good representative of the Jewish thinkers of today.

[@zombiestory6353]

This guy is just so full of it