Would you investigate a cemetery at midnight if it were part of a computer simulation? Can people develop virtues such as courage by playing video games? A special presentation by University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Professor Charles Joshua Horn challenges some assumptions about video games. It is part of the 13th annual University Evening.
Themed "Virtual Virtue: Cultivating Morals Through Video Games," the event will be held at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 20, in the Alumni Room of the Dreyfus University Center. The event will be led by Horn, who holds a joint appointment in UW-Stevens Point's departments of philosophy and political science.
University Evening invites the community to learn more about the creativity and scholarship of distinguished UW-Stevens Point faculty. This year's event will provide attendees the opportunity to play a variety of video games and learn about virtual reality gaming to explore questions of freedom, reality and morality.
"For the last 30 years, there have been concerns that video games can cause players to become more violent," Horn said. "But if video games can cause violent behavior, is it also possible that they can cause virtuous behaviors as well? My lecture will examine what it means to act morally and show the ways in which video games are blurring the lines between simulation and reality, and demonstrate how playing games can cultivate certain behaviors like courage."
Horn holds doctorate and master's degrees from the University of Kentucky, and has previously taught at that university along with Morehead State University and Eastern Kentucky University. His primary area of research is in 17th and 18th century philosophy and metaphysics. Horn is committed to making philosophy accessible to a broad audience by relating his research to topics in popular culture, particularly with video games.
Skip to main content
