Speaker: Melissa Lane
Moderator: Sally Sears '75
Our guest speaker is Dr. Melissa Lane, Princeton professor of classics and politics and director of the University Center for Human Values. Lane is a specialist in ancient Greek political thought. Her most recent book ,“Of Rule and Office”, which has won a prize in the history of philosophy, considers Plato’s thoughts on the accountability of those in power.
Dr Lane uses real-life Princeton issues to remind us how Plato struggled with similar questions. She'll remind us what we can learn from the balance of stability and change.
- What would Plato think about permanence and change as demonstrated by renaming the Woodrow Wilson School?
- Princeton in the Nation’s Service. Would Plato support the newer motto?
- How would Plato address the question of accountability of the Court today?
Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University, and an associated faculty member in the Department of Classics and the Department of Philosophy at Princeton. As of August 1, 2023, for a term of three academic years, she is also the 50th Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, a non-degree-granting institution founded in London in 1597. In this role, she delivers an extended series of public lectures, which are also livestreamed and available online on YouTube. In the academic year 2024-25, she is on leave from Princeton, based in the UK and holding a range of further roles, including: the Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor at Oxford and Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (Michaelmas 2024); and in spring 2025, Honorary Visiting Professor in Philosophy at UCL ; Visiting Fellow of the Keeling Centre for Ancient Philosophy, UCL; and Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London.
