Brescia University is hosting Dr. Todd May, philosopher and advisor for the NBC’s The Good Place, in a virtual public presentation at 5 p.m. Tuesday. May’s talk, “Ethics in The Good Place: Can Television Make us Better People” will be held in Duffy Auditorium in the C.E. Field Center for Professional Studies. This event is free and open to the public.
May has served as a political philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Clemson University for nearly 30 years. For many of those years his area of specialization in philosophy was ‘recent French thought,’ especially that of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. More recently he has turned his attention to broader life concerns: meaning in life, coping with suffering, acting with moral decency, and so on.
May is the author of 16 books of philosophy and was a philosophical advisor of The Good Place. He has a cameo on the final episode. In addition to his academic work he teaches in a local prison.
The Good Place ran on NBC for four seasons before ending in January 2020. The show stars Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, D’Arcy Carden, Manny Jacinto, and Ted Danson and revolves around a group of four people who are sent to the afterlife in what is called the Good Place. The show uses ethics and philosophy to deal with situations presented in the episodes.
“Dr. Todd May has a background in both psychology and philosophy. His willingness to talk about his expertise in both disciplines and his experience working with the writers, cast, and creator, Michael Schur on the show is a great way to tie class discussions and pop culture together,” said Brescia University Associate Professor of Psychology, Dr. Rachel Besing. “We’re so excited to talk with him.”
Besing used the premise of the show as a basis for her senior capstone class.
“The idea behind the class was to incorporate multiple disciplines into a senior capstone class for psychology majors,” she said. “I was looking for a fun way to encourage students to think critically about psychology, ethics, and theology. Colleagues at another university had developed a syllabus utilizing The Good Place. With their support, I was able to offer a similar class here at Brescia.”
