Book Talk: The Character Sketch as Philosophy: Manners, Mores, Types
Join the Department of English and the Department of Philosophy for a talk by Dr.聽K.M. (Katie) Ebner-Landy on her latest book聽.
16 March 2026, 4 p.m.
Leacock 738
What do characters teach us? How do characters change how we behave? This book locates a forgotten 鈥檛hird鈥� way of doing philosophy: one which began in ancient Greece, and was of major importance in early modernity, before being challenged by David Hume in the 1750s. This philosophical approach involved writing short descriptions of typical figures 鈥� from the Man with Bad Timing, to the Button Maker of Amsterdam. What, this book asks, might this tell us about the character types that we describe today?
is an Assistant Professor of Aesthetics at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, and a Junior Fellow at Harvard Society of Fellows.
This event is co-sponsored by the Department of English and the Department of Philosophy. It is聽free and open to all.