What Does the Declaration of Independence Declare?

The Moynihan Center

Join the Moynihan Center in partnership with the Jack Miller Center for a lecture by Dr. Roosevelt Montás.

The City College of New York

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, the Moynihan Center, in partnership with the Jack Miller Center, will host a two-part lecture series exploring how democratic societies can maintain a commitment to truth while preserving space for legitimate disagreement. The lectures will examine the Declaration's reference to "self-evident truths" in light of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous observation: "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts."This first lecture in the series features Dr. Roosevelt Montás, Professor at Bard College, who will explore the question: What Does the Declaration of Independence Declare?

Roosevelt Montás | Bard CollegeRoosevelt Montás is the first John and Margaret Bard Professor in Liberal Education and Civic Life at Bard College. Montás emigrated from the Dominican Republic to Queens, New York, when he was twelve and encountered the Western classics as an undergraduate in Columbia University’s renowned Core Curriculum, one of America’s last remaining Great Books programs. The experience changed his life and determined his career—he went on to earn a PhD in English and comparative literature, serve as director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum for ten years, and start a Great Books program for low-income high school students who aspire to be the first in their families to attend college. He speaks and writes on the history, meaning, and future of liberal education and is author of Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (Princeton University Press, 2021).

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What Does the Declaration of Independence Declare?

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