The Association of Renaissance Students at the University of Toronto will be hosting our second academic lecture of the 2017-2018 school year on 7 February 2018 @ 4:15pm. Dr. Jason Blahuta (Philosophy, Lakehead University) will be presenting his paper “Migrants, Mercenaries, and Militias: Warfare in The Prince” in the Victoria University Common Room (rear entrance of Burwash Dining Hall). All are welcome! Refreshments and discussion to follow.

Abstract:
A discussion of several aspects of warfare as it was practiced in Renaissance Italy and how this practice affects Machiavelli’s thoughts on military matters in The Prince. Also, considerations as to the relevance of Machiavelli’s ideas to select contemporary military situations.

Biography:
Jason Blahuta holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Ottawa and is associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and an adjunct in the Department of Political Science at Lakehead University.  His teaching and research interests are wide-raging and include Asian philosophy, just war theory, the philosophy of religion, and the full range of topics in the field of applied ethics.  The primary focus of his research is the philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli.  He is the author of Fortune and the Dao: A Comparative Study of Machiavelli, the Daodejing, and the Han Feizi (Lexington Books, 2015), a contributor to the Routledge Handbook of Ethics and War: Just War Theory in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2013), and co-editor of Final Fantasy and Philosophy (John Wiley and Sons, 2009).