Joshua Hochschild, professor of Philosophy and former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., will present “Friendship, Truth, and the Spiritual Challenges of Digital Distraction” at Mount Saint Mary College on Monday, October 20 at 3:35 p.m.
The free, public event will take place in the Mount’s Kaplan Family Library and Learning Center, room 218.
The talk is sponsored by the Catholic and Dominican Institute (CDI) as part of the college’s Founders Day celebration. Founders Day honors the Dominican Sisters who created and fostered Mount Saint Mary College.
In his presentation, Hochschild will pose some timely and poignant questions: Why do technologies that promote connection often make us feel alienated? What do we need to do in order to find true friendship and authentic community?
“The modern digital environment places unique demands on our attention,” he notes. “Once we recognize this as a spiritual challenge, we can appreciate a great resource for practical help: classical philosophical and theological reflection about human nature, especially on the topics of friendship, virtue, and the powers of the soul.”
Hochschild is an accomplished author and lecturer. He has published scholarly books and articles on the history of logic, metaphysics, and ethics. He’s the editor of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly, and is co-author of a book of practical spirituality, A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His essays on liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition have appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Comment, and Modern Age. In addition, Hochschild is a past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.
The Mount’s CDI promotes the Mount’s heritage of St. Dominic, advances the Dominican charism of study and service, provides a forum for discussion of contemporary ethical issues, and enhances Catholic and Jewish dialogue.