» Humanomics Alumni Colloquium

Sixth Semi-Annual Humanomics Alumni Colloquium

“Foundations of Our Judgments on Conduct”

April 5 – 6, 2024

The Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy invites all Humanomics alumni to participate in a weekend colloquium on “Foundations of Our Judgments on Conduct.” We will discuss Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray in dialogue with Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Adam Smith’s first great book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, is largely unknown to the average person. However self-interested his economics in The Wealth of Nations may be incorrectly supposed, there is evidently a prominent place in his philosophy of humankind for virtue ethics, including beneficence and justice. In Shelley’s novel, both Victor Frankenstein and his creature are monsters. Both are incapable, but for different reasons, of contemplating their own conduct. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde’s only novel, is a Gothic moral or immoral tale of corruption and ethical decay. “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it,” Lord Henry tells Dorian. What is the foundation of Frankenstein’s, the creature’s, Dorian’s, and our judgments concerning our own conduct? But how can our study of economics incorporate such judgments? And why does it matter that we integrate them into economics?

The core of a Humanomics colloquium lies in civil discourse and a commitment to read all materials in advance. Please plan to bring your books to the discussion and to be present and on time for all sessions. The colloquium is made possible by a grant from the Templeton Foundation.

The colloquium is made possible by a grant from the Templeton Foundation. Travel stipends of $200 are available for local alumni and $750 for non-local alumni. Travel stipend applications are included on the registration form.

Schedule (Wilkinson Hall 220, Chapman University)

Friday, April 5, 2024

5:00 Drinks followed by Dinner – Hector's on the Circle, 116 E. Chapman Ave., Orange, CA

Saturday, April 6, 2024

8:30 – 9:00 Coffee

9:00 – 10:30 1^st session – Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley (Discussion Leader: Michael Valdez Moses)

10:30 – 10:45 Break

10:45 – 12:15 2^nd session – The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (Discussion Leader: Josey Dunbar)

12:15 – 1:30 Lunch (bring your ideas for themes and texts for future colloquiums)

1:30 – 3:00 3^rd session – The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I, Sections I-II & Part II, Sections I-II, Adam Smith (Discussion Leader: Keith Hankins)

3:00 – 3:15 Break

3:15 – 4:45 4^th session – The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part III, Adam Smith (Discussion Leader: Bart Wilson)

5:00 Drinks followed by Dinner - Darya, 1998 N. Tustin St., Orange, CA

Humanomics Alumni Colloquium

“Meaningful Economics”

October 27 – 28, 2023

The Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy invites all Humanomics alumni to participate in a weekend colloquium on “Meaningful Economics.” We will discuss concurrently the 2022 novel Pure Colour by Sheila Heti and Bart Wilson’s book manuscript “Meaningful Economics.” If Prof. Wilson marked up your essays as a student, this is your opportunity to provide feedback for him on his project. The colloquium is made possible by a grant from the Templeton Foundation. Travel stipends of $200 are available for local alumni and $750 for non-local alumni. Travel stipend applications are included on the registration form. Pure Colour and Meaningful Economics will be provided.

Economics has a problem, Wilson claims. It cannot distinguish the causes of human action from the consequences of human action. It models representations of optimal agents, not flesh-and-blood human beings in ordinary life. Meaningful Economics is about understanding the principles of economics—the exchange of goods and services, the specialization that trade makes possible, and the system of property that undergirds both—in their origins and outcomes rather than exclusively in their consequences. It explains the roots of conduct, and not merely its economic effects, by going to the human capacity for moral feeling and thinking that prompt human beings to act.

Pure Colour is “an atlas of feeling.” It explores the mystery of consciousness with a mix of realism and surrealism, philosophy and fable, dialogue and myth, creating a unique and refreshing literary experience. Color and feeling are both pure in the sense of being essential and fundamental to the world, intense and vivid to the experience of being human, and original and unique to the individual. How can the study of economics put human feeling on equal footing with knowing, thinking, and wanting, to make it all at once ethical, psychological, sociological, and anthropological?

The core of a Humanomics colloquium lies in civil discourse and a commitment to read all materials in advance. Please plan to bring your books to the discussion and to be present and on time for all sessions.

Schedule (Wilkinson Hall 220, Chapman University)

Friday, October 27, 2023

5:00 Drinks followed by Dinner – Avila's El Ranchito, 182 S. Orange St, Orange, CA

Saturday, October 28, 2023

8:30 – 9:00 Coffee

9:00 – 10:30 1^st session – Meaningful Economics, Part I (Discussion leader: Gus Gradinger)

10:30 – 10:45 Break

10:45 – 12:15 2^nd session – Pure Colour (Discussion leader: Jan Osborn)

12:15 – 1:30 Lunch (Bring your ideas for themes and texts for the Spring 2024 colloquium.)

1:30 – 3:00 3^rd session – Meaningful Economics, Parts II & III (Discussion leader: Cindy Rivas)

3:00 – 3:15 Break

3:15 – 4:45 4^th session – Meaningful Economics, Part IV (Discussion leader: Josey Dunbar)

5:00 Drinks followed by Dinner - Darya, 1998 N. Tustin St., Orange, CA

Humanomics Alumni Colloquium

“Justice and Evil: Mitigating the Human Condition”

March 31 – April 1, 2023

The Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy invites all Humanomics alumni to participate in a weekend colloquium on “Justice and Evil.” We will discuss concurrently Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men, C. Fred Alford’s What Evil Means to Us and a chapter by F. A. Hayek entitled “The Quest for Justice.” The colloquium is made possible by a grant from the Templeton Foundation.

Through his interdisciplinary approach Alford constructs an analysis and argument for the nature of this thing we call “evil.” His is an unusual argument which states that evil is an experience of dread. This surprising and—at first encounter—unsatisfying description of evil is analyzed through the lens of Alford’s many interviews with inmates, college students, and young professionals. What Evil Means to Us provides an original, multifaceted, and accessible account of the mysterious force behind “bad” actions. Alford believes that through both understanding and accepting the philosophical and psychological phenomenon that is evil, we can better mitigate it in ourselves and recognize it in others.

Rose’s classic play Twelve Angry Men gives legs to the theoretical work of Alford as twelve jurors discuss whether or not the alleged crime of a sixteen-year-old boy should result in corporal punishment. Through the points made and prejudices held by twelve randomly selected men, we observe the seeds of evil not only in the alleged criminal but also in the “ordinary individuals” selected to decide his fate.

Hayek’s three-volume series Law, Legislation and Liberty explores the nature of what a society is, how best to create order within it and what kind of laws create actual freedom for citizens. For our purposes “The Quest for Justice” will provide a practical framework for what we do in a world of evil and relative morality. What is the responsibility of the individual? What is the responsibility of the state? What is the interaction between ethics, evil and exchange? How does one mitigate evil in the human condition?

The core of a Humanomics colloquium lies in civil discourse and a commitment to read all materials in advance. Please plan to bring your books to the discussion and to be present and on time for all sessions.

Schedule (Wilkinson Hall 221, Chapman University)

Friday, March 31, 2023

6:00 Dinner – Super Antojitos (642 West Capman Avenue, Orange, CA 92866)

Saturday, April 1, 2023

10:00 – 10:30 Coffee

10:30 – 11:45 1^st session – What Evil Means to Us, C. Fred Alford

11:45 – 1:45 Lunch

2:00 – 3:15 2^nd session – Twelve Angry Men, Reginald Rose

3:15 – 3:30 Break

3:30 – 4:45 3^rd session – “The Quest for Justice”, Law, Legislation, and Liberty, Vol. 2, F. A. Hayek

6:00 Dinner - Bosscat Kitchen (118 W Chapman Ave, Orange, CA 92866)

Humanomics Alumni Colloquium

"American Gods and the Bourgeois Era: The Stories We Tell Ourselves"

November 6, 2021

Chapman University Homecoming

After two stimulating virtual colloquia in 2020, the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy invites all Humanomics alumni to participate in a one-day colloquium—“American Gods and the Bourgeois Era: The Stories We Tell Ourselves”—on Saturday, November 6, 2021 as part of Chapman’s Homecoming weekend. As in all Humanomics experiences, the aim is to engage with texts from different disciplines, considering the challenges of multiple perspectives, and to deconstruct the perceived tensions the texts.

We will discuss concurrently Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Deirdre McCloskey and Art Carden’s Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich. Gaiman frames his novel on the mythological stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world and to give order to our daily lives. We create our culture and our gods, and both are only powerful as long as we believe in them.

McCloskey and Carden frame their economic history around the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the modern bourgeois world and offer an alternative explanation for our prosperity—the idea of a liberal ethical order to buy low and sell high and make the world rich.

What gods do we think we empower with commerce? Supposing such gods are only as powerful as we believe them to be, what do we empower and disempower if we tell ourselves the McCloskey-Carden story of the Great Enrichment?

The core of a Humanomics colloquium lies in civil discourse and a commitment to read all materials in advance. Please plan to bring your books to the discussion and to be present and on time for all sessions.

Schedule for the day (Wilkinson Hall 221)

Continental Breakfast: 8:15 – 9:00 a.m.

Session 1: 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. American Gods

Session 2: 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich

Break: 11:00 – 11:15 a.m.

Session 3: 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. “What do these texts have to do with one another?”

Lunch (off campus)

If you would like to participate, the Smith Institute will reimburse the cost of your books up to $40. 

Humanomics Alumni Virtual Colloquium

"The Past in the Present: Structures and Values"

April 24, 2021

Following the interest in our first Alumni Colloquium in December 2020, the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy invites all Humanomics alumni to participate in a one-day virtual colloquium—“The Past in the Present”—on Saturday, April 24, 2021. As in all Humanomics experiences, the aim is to engage with texts from different disciplines, considering the challenges of multiple perspectives, and to deconstruct the perceived tensions the texts and our interpretations present to us as a group.

We will discuss concurrently William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The books, one fiction and one non-fiction, written by authors from different centuries, races, and life experiences, explore the values and structures of the country, posing serious questions about the possibilities for change in light of the past’s imprint on the present, and the future.

The core of a Humanomics colloquium lies in civil discourse and a commitment to read all materials in advance. Please plan to bring your books to the discussion and to be present and on time for all sessions.

Schedule for the day

Pre-Session Coffee: 8:30 - 9:00 a.m. PST

Session 1: 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. The Sound and the Fury

Break: 10:30 - 10:45 a.m.

Session 2: 10:45 - 12:15 p.m. Caste: The Origins of our Discontents

If you would like to participate, the Smith Institute will reimburse the cost of your books up to $40. 

Humanomics Alumni Virtual Colloquium

"Race and Economics"

December 5, 2020

Fall 2020 is the 10th Anniversary of the first Humanomics class at Chapman University. To celebrate, the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy invites all Humanomics alumni to participate in a one-day virtual colloquium on “Race and Economics” on Saturday, December 5, 2020. As in all Humanomics classes, the aim is to challenge and deconstruct the perceived tension between economics and the humanities.

The conferees will discuss concurrently Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, Walter Williams’s Race and Economics, and an excerpt from Jeff Chang’s We Gon’ Be Alright. Following the Humanomics tradition, the format will be three Socratic roundtable discussions led by Profs. Jan Osborn and Bart Wilson.

The core of a Humanomics colloquium lies in civil discourse and a commitment to read all materials in advance. Please plan to bring your books to the discussion and to be present and on time for all sessions.

Schedule for the day

you would like to participate, the Smith Institute will reimburse the cost of your books up to $50. (We will provide a fair use copy of the excerpt from We Gon’ Be Alright.)