February 11, 2002

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER ROBERT P. GEORGE TO SPEAK AT SMU

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DALLAS (SMU) -- Noted political philosopher, constitutional law scholar and ethicist Robert P. George will speak at a luncheon at Southern Methodist University Thursday, Feb. 21, and later sign copies of his new book, The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion, and Morality in Crisis.

George will make two appearances:

• He will give a lecture for the Dallas Christian Leadership's SMU luncheon series from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in the Umphrey Lee Ballroom, 3300 Dyer St. Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for SMU students, staff and faculty. Reservations for the luncheon must be made by Monday, Feb. 18, however, a limited number of tickets may be purchased at the door, if seats are available. To order tickets, call 214-232-7248. In addition to the Dallas Christian Leadership, George's lecture is being sponsored by the SMU John G. Tower Center for Political Studies in Dedman College and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Lecture Program.
• George also will sign books at a tea sponsored by SMU's Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Highland Park United Methodist Church in the Storm Lounge, second floor, room 212. The tea is free and open to the public, but reservations must be made by Feb. 15.

In The Clash of Orthodoxies, George claims that Christian moral principles are rationally superior to secular ideologies, which he says dominate the elite sectors of Western culture such as universities and government. He argues that Judeo-Christian morality comports both with facts and logic, while secularist ideology does not.

George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is the author or editor of six books, including Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality, In Defense of Natural Law, Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays, and The Anatomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism.

George was recently appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Council on Bioethics. He served from 1993-98 as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and was a former Judicial Fellow at the U.S. Supreme Court, where he received the 1990 Tom C. Clark Award. George is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School, and he holds a doctorate in philosophy of law from Oxford University.