Hansmann Lecture: Anthony Kronman
Sterling Professor of Law, Yale University
Education in an Age of Disenchantment
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 • 4:10pm • Taylor Science Center G027
Nearly a century ago, Max Weber said that we live in a “godless and prophetless” age. He called our age one of “disenchantment.” Today, he said, those who search for the meaning of life must do so “in pianissimo,” in the privacy and quiet of their personal beliefs and relations. The meaning of life, he declared, is no longer to be found in the classroom, laboratory or library, where the sober work of teaching and learning has been disconnected from it. Is Weber’s diagnosis right? Or does the meaning of life still have a place in our colleges and universities?
Anthony Kronman is Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School. A former Dean of Yale Law School from 1994-2004, Professor Kronman teaches in the areas of contracts, bankruptcy, jurisprudence, social theory, and professional responsibility. Before coming to Yale, he taught at the University of Chicago. Among his books are Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life; Max Weber; Contracts: Cases and Materials (with F. Kessler and G. Gilmore), and Lost Lawyer. Professor Kronman received his B.A. from Williams College, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy and J.D. from Yale. Professor Kronman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. In June 2004, he was named Commander of the French National Order of Merit.
Sponsored by Dean of Faculty, the Yordán Lecture Fund, the Hansmann Lecture Fund, the Chaplaincy, Religious Studies Department, and the Education Studies Program.