The Todd Lecture is this year presented by Professor Rebecca Langlands.
Exempla: the beating heart of philosophical traditions
This lecture makes the case for the relevance of Roman exemplary ethics within a global history of philosophy. Roman moral exempla constituted a rich resource for rhetorical argument and moral teaching, but also formed part of a lived ethical practice, which influenced ancient philosophical traditions (including Greek, Roman, Jewish and Christian) in a multi-cultural antiquity. One influential Roman work was Valerius Maximus’ Memorable Words and Deeds, which later became a central reference point for Renaissance humanism and the direct inspiration for some of the greatest art, literature and philosophy of this period. Valerius was considered an important ethical writer not only for his preservation of historical exempla, but also for the mode of his exemplary ethical writing, which shaped European thought. A global history of exemplarism has a particular urgency today, given the new appetite among contemporary philosophers, and political and education theorists for serious academic study of moral exemplarism. My ongoing research works towards a global history of exemplary ethics, exploring both the roots of European moral exemplarism in ancient Roman culture, and the striking parallels with ancient Roman exemplary practices in non-Western traditions such as ancient Chinese philosophy or Classical Persian and Arabic literature.
Rebecca Langlands is Professor of Classics, with particular interests in Latin literature and Roman culture, ethics and exemplarity, the history of sexuality and classical reception. She is the author of Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome (CUP 2006), Sex, Knowledge and Receptions of the Past (edited with Kate Fisher, OUP 2015), Exemplary Ethics in Ancient Rome (CUP 2018) and Literature and Culture in the Roman Empire, 96-235. Cross-Cultural Interactions (edited with Alice König and James Uden, 2020).
She is the co-director of the Sexual Knowledge Unit (with Jana Funke, Ina Linge and Kate Fisher), and also of the award-winning Sex and History project which works with museums, schools, charities and young people to promote empowering discussion of contemporary sexual issues.
