A Conversation with Nancy Sherman
Date: Thursday, February 4, 2026
Time: 6:00 p.m. EST
Format: In-person and via Zoom
Please join us for an evening discussion with Nancy Sherman (Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University) on her forthcoming book, Feed the Soul: Lessons from Aristotle on Living Well (January 2027), available through Yale University Press.
Further details and a registration link to follow in the fall.
About the Book
A lively and personal guide to pursuing true happiness through a life grounded in empathy and shared purpose
Of all the ancient thinkers, Aristotle is the humane, dynamic guide we need to navigate modern life. Unlike the Stoics, who advocated detachment and self-reliance, Aristotle knew that goodness grows through human connections. People flourish through friendship and community, and they wither when they retreat.
Distilling Aristotle’s core ideas, acclaimed scholar Nancy Sherman explores how connection, curiosity, and ethical character can help us make peace with the fragility of happiness, and how we can address the questions we struggle to answer:
• What is it to flourish?
• What is it to live a good life?
• How do we find joy in nature without exploiting it?
• How do we play without hurting, joke without mocking?
• How do we build strong friendships in an age of loneliness?
• What does it mean to have a good soul?
As Sherman walks beside the famous philosopher, she shows us why his vision speaks powerfully to our anxious and divided times—and how we can put that vision into practice.
About the Speaker
Nancy Sherman is Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. She has an affiliate appointment with Georgetown Law’s Center on National Security and the Law and Georgetown Kennedy Institute of Ethics. Author of a New York Times Notable book, her most recent book is Feed the Soul: Lessons from Aristotle on Living Well. Previous books include Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience; Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our Soldiers; The Untold War: Inside the Heart, Mind, and Souls of Our Soldiers (a NYT notable book and editors’ pick); Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy Behind the Military Mind; Making A Necessity of Virtue: Aristotle and Kant on Virtue, and The Fabric of Character: Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue. She is the editor of Critical Essays on the Classics: Aristotle’s Ethics. From 1997-1999, she served as the inaugural Distinguished Chair in Ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy. Sherman is the author of over 70 articles in the area of ethics, military ethics, the history of moral philosophy, ancient ethics, the emotions, moral psychology, and psychoanalysis.
Sherman has written for or been interviewed by the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, The Boston Globe, Chronicle for Higher Education, New Statesman, Prospect Magazine, Time Magazine, Foreign Policy, NPR and its affiliate stations, PBS TV and contributes frequently to many other print and online media outlets in the U.S. and abroad. Her NY Timesessays were among those ultimately selected for inclusion in The Stone Reader. She is a frequent guest on podcasts. She has delivered over 60 named or keynote lectures and plenary addresses here and abroad, and scores of other lectures around the world.
Sherman is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Wilson Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council for Learned Societies, the Mellon Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, The Charlotte Newcombe Fellowship (of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars), and NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts. In 2005, she visited Guantanamo Bay Detention Center as part of an expert independent observer team assessing the medical and mental health care of detainees. She consults and advocates on behalf of the mental health of service members and veterans in the U.S. and abroad. Sherman lectures internationally and is a keynote speaker on ancient philosophy, military ethics, ethics, the history of moral philosophy, the moral psychology of war, and the emotions.
Sherman holds a Ph.D. from Harvard in ancient philosophy where she received an award for the most distinguished thesis in the area of the history of philosophy, a B.A. magna cum laude with honors from Bryn Mawr College, and an M.Litt. from the University of Edinburgh. She has also studied at Kings College, Cambridge University. Sherman is a fellow of the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis where she did research training. Sherman taught at Yale as an assistant and associate professor before joining the Georgetown faculty and has been a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland.
For more, see www.nancysherman.com