The 2014 Aquinas Lecture, Moral Sprouts and Natural Teleologies: 21st Century Moral Psychology Meets Classical Chinese Philosophy , was delivered on Sunday, February 23, 2014, by Owen J. Flanagan, James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, USA. Dr. Flanagan received his B.A. in Philosophy from Fordham University, USA in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University, USA in 1978. He taught as Wellesley College, USA from 1977-1993 before moving to Duke University in 1993. He has had Visiting appointments as Distinguished Professor, University of Vienna, Austria the Jack Lynch Visiting Professor, Wake Forest University, USA a Templeton Distinguished Research Fellow, University of Southern California, USA Distinguished Fellow in Psychology & Biology of Morality, Dartmouth College, USA and the John Findlay Distinguished Visiting Professor, Boston University, USA. As a Templeton Distinguished Research Fellow, he gave six lectures on the topic "Human Flourishing in the Age of Mind Science." In 1998-99, he earned the Romanell Phi Beta Kappa Award, giving three Lectures on "Science and the Human Image."
In addition to his position as Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, he is also Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Professor of Neurobiology, a Faculty Associate at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and an Associate in the Graduate Program in Literature.