24.11.2017
Lectures/Events

Lecture by Terry Eagleton: Against Pluralism

Fr, 24 November 2017, 7 pm

World-renowned author, critic and theorist Terry Eagleton comes to the Salzburger Kunstverein to deliver a lecture entitled “Against Pluralism.” The lecture will be followed by a reception.

“If Terry Eagleton didn’t exist, it would
be necessary to invent him.”
Simon Critchley, author of The Book of Dead Philosophers

“Hope Without Optimism (by Terry Eagleton) is the best formula of the authentic religion that fits our dark times.”
Slavoj Žižek, author of Living in the End Times

Why do we tend to assume that plurality, difference and diversity are inherently valuable? Are there not noxious forms of them as well as positive ones? Why do liberal pluralists tend to suspect that strong convictions are dogmatic? What is the real meaning of tolerance? What are we to make of the kind of relativism for which all viewpoints are equal? The lecture will address these and associated questions in the hope of providing some answers.

Terry Eagleton is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University. Eagleton has published over fifty books spanning the fields of literary theory, postmodernism, politics, ideology and religion, including the seminal Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), which has sold over 750,000 copies. The work elucidated the emerging literary theory of the period. He has also been a prominent critic of postmodernism, publishing works such as The Illusions of Postmodernism (1996).

His most recent books, including Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (2009), On Evil (2010), Why Marx Was Right (2011), Culture and the Death of God (2014), Hope Without Optimism (2015), Materialism (2016), and Culture (2016) are all printed by Yale University.