The Natural End of Political Life

This lecture was given on April 27th, 2023, at the University of Texas at El Paso. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Erik Dempsey (Ph.D., Boston College) is the Assistant Director of UT's Thomas Jefferson for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas. He completed his doctorate at Boston College in June 2007. He is interested in understanding human virtue and the proper place of politics in a well-lived human life, the different ways in which human virtue is understood in different political situations, and the ways in which human virtue may transcend any political situation. His dissertation looks at Aristotle's treatment of prudence in the Nicomachean Ethics, and Aristotle's suggestion that virtue should be understood as an end in itself. He is currently at work turning his dissertation into a book by adding chapters that consider Thomas Aquinas' interpretation of Aristotle in terms of natural law and Marsilius of Padua's critique of Thomas.