The Right to Oblivion

Join Zephyr Thursday, 17 October 6:00–8:00pm for a Zephyr Salon with Lowry Pressly (Stanford) on the right to privacy.

What is privacy and why is it valuable? Is privacy just about protecting my individual freedom to control access to my personal data, as much contemporary discussion seems to presuppose? Or is it about something much deeper: protecting a space of oblivion necessary for the full development of our capacities for agency, trust, play, self-discovery, and growth? In his recent book, The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life (Harvard University Press, 2024), Lowry Pressly argues for and articulates this latter, richer conception of privacy: we all need a refuge from the world to flourish as human beings, not because we have something to hide, but because we all need a psychic space shielded from outside oversight, including digital oversight, in order to fully develop ourselves.

In this Zephyr Salon, Pressly will discuss the argument of his book and its implications for our contemporary predicament. Ample time will be provided for question-and-answer discussion as we wrestle with these difficult questions.

Dinner will be provided. Please RSVP so that Zephyr can have an accurate headcount.

About the speaker

Lowry Pressly is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, and the Stanford Civics Initiative. He has published in Ethics, Political Theory, and Contemporary Political Theory, and has also contributed critical essays and interviews to The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Point, Public Books, and elsewhere. His works of fiction and translation also appear widely. Pressly’s philosophical and literary work has been recognized with several awards, including the Leo Strauss Award, the Robert Noxon Toppan Prize, the Bowdoin Prize, and the Thomas Morton Memorial Award for Literary Excellence.

Eligibility

This event is open to the general public.