Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2019

Homo Empathicus and how to save democracy

Alexander Görlach
Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

18:00-19:30, Nov. 18th, 2019
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University

The lecture looks into the basics of democratic and free societies and the challenges that are posed to them nowadays through populism. While liberal democracy highlights citizenship on grounds of human rights the populists in this "era of identity" claim soil and kinship to be paramount for defining communities. Empathy fuels liberal democracy whereas the politics of the populists are politics of resentment.

Alexander Görlach holds PhDs in linguistics and comparative religion. He is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, a honorary professor of ethics and theology at the University of Lüneburg and an affiliate in the "In Defense of Democracy"-program by the F. D. Roosevelt Foundation at Harvard University. Alex served at both Harvard University and Cambridge University as fellow and visiting scholar. His last book "Homo Empathicus. On Scapegoats, Populists and How to Save Democracy" will be published in the US by Brookings.

No prior registration necessary / Lecture in English
This talk is organized by Professor Sven Saaler (FLA)

Institute of Comparative Culture (ICC) Sophia University: 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8554, JAPAN/ Web: http://icc.fla.sophia.ac.jp/