On May 24, Professor Larry Temkin, Distinguished Professor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and a world-renowned ethicist, was invited to deliver a lecture at Jilin University’s Dingxin Lecture series. Speaking under the title “Being Good in a World of Need,” he expounded his “pluralistic approach” to global aid. Professor Zhang Xi, President of Jilin University, met with Professor Temkin and presented him with the Dingxin Lecture Commemorative Plaque.
Drawing on his concerns about the difficulties of assisting the world’s most impoverished regions, Professor Temkin raised three worries. First, when aid agencies hire highly qualified local people to advance their work, negative consequences may arise in unexpected forms at other levels. Second, improper interference by foreign interest groups in a country’s own priorities has a negative impact on local autonomy. Third, external interventions can, to some extent, erode a government’s ability to rally its citizens. At the same time, Professor Temkin argued that if we as individuals do what we believe is the morally best thing to help the poor, we may collectively bring about morally worse outcomes for the global poor as a whole. He also illustrated, through the moral catastrophe that occurred in Goma, that concerns about global aid are by no means merely an abstract possibility.
The lecture was met with a lively atmosphere, and many faculty members and students engaged in in-depth discussions with Professor Temkin. In his remarks, Professor Bai Gang, Dean of the School of Philosophy and Sociology, noted that Professor Temkin has long made significant contributions to the friendly cooperation between the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University and the Department of Philosophy at Jilin University. This lecture marked Professor Temkin’s second time teaching at Jilin University, reflecting his deep bond with the philosophy community at the university. The lecture emphasized the integration of theory and practice and offered profound intellectual inspiration.
This Dingxin Lecture was hosted by the Jilin University Science and Technology Association, organized by the Institute of Social Sciences Research and the School of Philosophy and Sociology of Jilin University, and chaired by Professor Qu Hongmei, Dean of the Institute of Social Sciences Research. Over 100 faculty members and students from both inside and outside the university attended the event.
