Cornel West and Robert George ‘Agree to Disagree’ at RIT

Political philosophers Cornel West and Robert George are guests at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Statesmanship, Law & Liberty’s sixth Annual Symposium on April 5.

Their presentation, “How to Agree to Disagree,” begins at 7:30 p.m. in RIT’s Gordon Field House and Activities Center. The event is free, but registration is encouraged.

West, a progressive professor of public philosophy at Harvard University and professor emeritus at Princeton University, and George, a conservative legal scholar at Princeton, will discuss the importance of learning how to disagree with respect, civility and humor.

“They are two leading public intellectuals who make up an ideological odd couple who are friends,” said center Director Joseph Fornieri, a professor of political science at RIT. “I think that’s an important message in these very divided times. We can still be friends rather than enemies.”

Fornieri said one purpose of the annual symposium, put on by the non-partisan center, is to create dialogue and promote a greater understanding of a variety of viewpoints.

“Civility and friendship presume you have something in common despite differences,” Fornieri said. “They’ll show how we might be able to find a much-needed common ground, and an open mindedness, a genuine appreciation of diversity of thought and true tolerance.”

West and George have paired up in recent years in speaking engagements and issuing joint statements, such as their reaction to a speaker who was shouted down at another college two years ago.

West was keynote speaker at RIT’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in 2012.

RIT’s Center for Statesmanship, Law and Liberty was formed in 2014 to promote an understanding of the crucial role of statesmanship in founding, perpetuating and enhancing a free society.

Previous symposium speakers include Carolyn Lukensmeyer, executive of the National Institute for Public Discourse; former ACLU President Nadine Strossen and free speech advocate Alan Charles Kors; CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen; and Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism advisor and czar under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.