What does it mean to live a good life, make responsible choices, or understand the world around us? A cornerstone of Trent’s intellectual life, the Ryle Lecture Series brings leading philosophers to the University to explore enduring questions about knowledge, ethics, and human understanding.

Upcoming Lectures

The Political Promise of Aesthetic EngagementThe Political Promise of Aesthetic Engagement

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Philosophy Department's Gilbert Ryle Lecture Series.

Speaker: Dr. Dominic McIver Lopes, FRSC, University Killam Professor at UBC
 
Lecture 1: Kant on Aesthetic Self-Legislation in Liberalism

Should Kant’s “pure judgements of taste” convince us that people with very different perspectives on value can share enough to live together?

  • calendar iconMonday, October 19, 2026
  • time icon7:00 p.m.
  • location iconThe Gathering Space (Room 102), Enwayaang Building
Lecture 2: Bhattacharyya on Aesthetic Swaraj

For K. C. Bhattacharyya, exercising freedom through aesthetic emotion is an exercise of cultural swaraj, independence from a colonial mindset.

  • calendar iconTuesday, October 20, 2026
  • time icon4:30 p.m.
  • location iconBagnani Hall, Traill College
Lecture 3: The Political Promise of Aesthetic Value Pluralism

Being good at aesthetic diversity is one way to be good at promoting diversity in general. We have political reasons to promote diverse value perspectives, thus, to be good at aesthetic diversity.

  • calendar iconWednesday, October 21, 2026
  • time icon6:30 p.m.
  • location iconRoom 108, Enwayaang Building

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About Dr. Dominic McIver Lopes

Professor Dominic McIver Lopes FRSC, is the University Killam Professor at UBC, and is the author of several books, including Aesthetic Injustice (2024) and Being for Beauty: Aesthetic Agency and Value (2018). In recent work, he has crafted a theory of aesthetic value as embedded in social practices, and he has proposed a conception of aesthetic injustice as a factor in social injustice.
Professor Lopes is the author of twelve books and numerous articles in the areas of Aesthetics, Asian Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind/Cognitive Science, and Social and Political Philosophy. 

For more information email philosophy@trentu.ca.

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About Gilbert Ryle

Gilbert Ryle was an influential British philosopher whose scholarship helped establish Oxford University as a global centre for philosophical research in the post-war period.

His 1971 visit to Trent University marked a defining moment in the early development of the Philosophy Department. In 1973, Trent awarded Ryle an honorary degree in recognition of his contributions, one of the university’s highest honours.

Trent’s Philosophy Department founded the Gilbert Ryle Lecture Series in 1977, in honour of Ryle’s enduring influence on philosophical inquiry and public intellectual life.