The New York Times Magazine columnist Randy Cohen attributes his position on ethics to his childhood.

‘My sense of these things was shaped by my family,’ Cohen said. ‘That’s true for many people. My beliefs have more in common with my parents than with anything else. The tiny community of people with whom you spent your most formative years really shapes your beliefs.’

Cohen, writer of The Ethicist column for The New York Times Magazine, will speak Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel as part of the University Lectures series. He will discuss his views on character in the lecture, ‘How to Be Good,’ which will also deal with ethics in a humorous way.

The lecture is free, open to both students and the public, and sponsored by the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies.

‘‘How to Be Good’ makes the argument that it is not character, but circumstances that determine the content of people’s lives,’ Cohen said. ‘I argue that character may not even exist, and that when people have the opportunity to behave well, they oftentimes do.’

Cohen was raised in Reading, Pa. He received his bachelor of arts in music from the State University of New York at Albany and attended the California Institute of the Arts to study music composition.

He began his career writing humor pieces, essays and stories for several newspapers and magazines. Cohen then made his way into television, becoming a writer for ‘Late Night with David Letterman,’ for which he won three Emmy Awards. 

He won an additional Emmy for his work on Michael Moore’s ‘TV Nation.’ He has also written for Slate magazine and answered questions on ethics for National Public Radio.

Esther Gray, special assistant for academic affairs, said she has high hopes for the lecture.

‘I’m sure Randy will speak about the same sort of things he writes about in his column, but he will do it with humor, which is always a good thing.’ Gray said.

Cohen was invited to campus due to the popularity of his column, terrific sense of humor and interesting background, Gray said. The lecture topic of ethics adds an additional draw.

‘The subject of ethics is always a serious and important subject, whether on a college campus or in the business world,’ Gray said.

Maya Kosoff, a freshman magazine journalism major, follows Cohen’s column and plans to attend the lecture.

Kosoff said: ‘I’m intrigued to hear what he says about ethics based off of what I’ve read in his New York Times Magazine column.’ 

dspearl@syr.edu

Published on October 18, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Diana: dspearl@syr.edu | @dianapearl_