Join us for a lecture in the Illinois Forum on Human Flourishing in a Digital Age Speaker Series with John Durham Peters.
Considering Forgiveness in a Time of Ubiquitous Recording
The notion of the book of life—out of which the actions of people will be recorded for eventual judgment--has a long history in Jewish and Christian thought. Digital media revive this notion in strange ways. Both in journalistic coverage and everyday life, there is now a striking level of detailed judgment about the minutiae of nonverbal and nonpublic expression. Cameras caught! Microphones picked up! Celebrity X or Athlete Y breaks silence! What does this incessant documentation mean for the possibility of forgiveness and also forgetfulness (which of course is not exactly the same thing)?
About the Speaker
John Durham Peters teaches and writes on media history and theory. He taught at the University of Iowa between 1986-2016. He is the author of Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication (1999), Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition (2005), The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media (2015), and most recently, Promiscuous Knowledge: Information, Image, and Other Truth Games in History (2020), with the late Kenneth Cmiel. He is working on a media history of weather.
About the Illinois Forum on Human Flourishing in a Digital Age
Housed in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Illinois, the Illinois Forum on Human Flourishing in a Digital Age supports study and research into the possibilities for human flourishing in contemporary society.
The activities of the Forum combine philosophical reflection on human nature and the human good with practical reflection on the possibilities for living well, and for designing tools that contribute to human flourishing, in a world shaped by digital technology. Learn more: https://philosophy.illinois.edu/academics/illinois-forum-human-flourishing-digital-age