É«É«À²

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A University of Pennsylvania scholar will deliver the annual Winnie Veenstra Peace Lecture in mid April at É«É«À² Michigan University.

This talk has been canceled due to illness.

Dr. Alexander Guerrero, assistant professor of philosophy and of law, will speak at 6 p.m. Friday, April 15, in the Brown and Gold Room of the Bernhard Center. The title of his presentation, which is free and open to the public, is "Again Toward Perpetual Peace: World Government by Lottocracy."

Global democracy needed

Guerrero will discuss arguments made by Iris Marrion Young in favor of world government, arguing that a true global democracy is the only way to creating lasting peace and, to borrow a phrase from John Rawls, "stability for the right reasons.

Yet philosophers have overwhelmingly been opposed to world government. Rawls, Immanuel Kant, K.C. Tan, Thomas Pogge, Charles Beitz, Debra Satz, Anne-Marie Slaughter and others have challenged both the feasibility and desirability of world government. Guerrero develops and extends arguments made by Iris Marion Young in favor of world government, pointing out that absent a global democracy, conditions of international inequality, exploitation and injustice will remain perpetual features around the now interconnected world. Guerrero argues that efforts to address threats posed by global warming, terrorism and other forms of extremism, cyberwarfare and disease will prove inadequate.

Alexander Guerrero

Guerrero earned both a doctoral degree and juris doctorate from New York University. His research interests include political philosophy; ethics, applied ethics, bioethics and metaethics; philosophy of law and epistemology. His research has been published in a long list of journals and publications.

Guerrero's presentation is part of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society's spring 2016 lecture series and is funded by the center's Winnie Veenstra Endowment for Lectures on Peace. It is named in honor of Veenstra, a É«É«À² alumna who died more than 25 years ago and left a sum of money to É«É«À² to support peace efforts through lectures or forums open to the University and community. The permanent endowment has allowed the center to continue holding the peace lecture every year.

The event is cosponsored by the Department of Philosophy, Haenicke Institute for Global Education, Department of Political Science, Kalamazoo Peace Center, Pax Christi Kalamazoo, St. Thomas More Social Justice, St. Joseph Social Justice and Kalamazoo Non-Violent Opponents of War.

For more information, visit wmich.edu/ethics.

For more news, arts and events, visit wmich.edu/news.