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Yale’s Professor Thomas Pogge Delivers Vance Lecture
By Adam Straub, ’11, courtesy of Kent News |
Professor Thomas Pogge of Yale University delivered this year’s Cyrus R. Vance ’35 Lecture. The Vance Lecture was established in 2002 in memory of the late Cyrus R. Vance, Kent Class of 1935, who served as Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter. The theme of the Vance Lecture series is the prevention and resolution of violent conflict.
Dr. Pogge is the Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale. He has also taught at Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Oslo in Norway. He earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Harvard under the supervision of the late Professor John Rawls, Kent Class of 1939. His work has examined such specific issues as extreme poverty, human rights, global justice, pharmaceutical research, and global access to medicines, among other topics. His book World Poverty and Human Rights is considered one of the most important works on global justice. He is particularly known for his argument that the global rich have a "positive duty" to help others in need as well as a "negative duty" not to contribute to the imposition of global institutional order that impedes the fulfillment of basic socioeconomic rights.
Dr. Pogge’s speech focused on patriotism and, in particular, its positive aspect. He defined patriotism as having two stems; common patriotism and lofty patriotism. “Common patriotism,” he reported, “entails citizens and governments showing more concern for the survival and flourishing of their own nation, culture, and citizens rather than those of foreign states.” He explained that common patriotism is broadly true but there are exceptions to it as well. For example, giving our nation a bit more security is no reason to kill tens of thousands of people abroad. Consequently, he stated, “common patriotism should be realized, but not in way that prioritizes our people over the people of other nations; a small gain for our nation should not outweigh a very great loss for another.”
He also outlined situations in which patriotism should not apply and must be looked at impartially. As Pogge explained, lofty patriotism has more to do with justice and injustice. “Lofty patriotism” occurs when a country’s citizens and government should show more concern for justice in its own nation and injustices suffered by the country’s own people rather than the injustices suffered by those of other nations. He explained that lofty patriotism is quite common, but that there are exceptions to it, as well; if our nation has the ability to stop a minute injustice from occurring to its people or to stop a great injustice in another nation, the greater injustice should be given priority over the much smaller injustice. Again, prioritizing comes into play.
On the topic of human rights, Dr. Pogge brought up Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that every person is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in the document could be fully realized. Dr. Pogge described this article as the most frequently abused. He also pointed out that our country should not support any other government that interferes with human rights to its people. He then walked the Kent community through the facts of poverty, as many students sat astonished by the numbers: millions, and perhaps billions, of people are affected by poverty-related problems. He shared the figures of people dying from diarrhea, tropical diseases and other sicknesses, many of which can be easily, and fairly cheaply, prevented.
Many students asked questions regarding how ordinary people could help to curtail these issues. He stressed that change in the government’s view on the issues starts with our country’s citizens. As he told it, we rarely realize that we see the causes of poverty taking place all the time and everywhere.
Dr. Pogge’s lecture reiterated not only the prevention of violent conflict, but the use of government in solving the world’s problems. Dr. Pogge was able to elaborate on a world situation that the Kent community was already aware of, while expanding on the most complicated issues of solving the world’s problems in the arena of international politics. All who attended left with a greater sense of the importance of a practical approach to solving the world’s injustices. Said Mrs. Lynch, “Dr. Pogge’s activism to alleviate poverty and provide medicines for the poor is remarkable. It is rare privilege to meet a person like him. He has a brilliant mind, international reputation, and profound academic career, yet despite all his personal achievements, he is a very humble man.”
