USUPhilosophy

UVU HONORS PROGRAM TO WELCOME AWARD-WINNING SCHOLAR BELL HOOKS

On March 29, the Utah Valley University Honors Program and
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences will welcome
award-winning cultural theorist, philosopher and social activist bell
hooks, who will give an address entitled ”Ending Domination: Race, Sex
and Class”. Hailed as one of the “100 Visionaries Who Could Change
Your Life” by Utne Reader, her writings cover a broad range of topics
incorporating issues on feminism, race, class, education, mass media and
engaged pedagogy.
“We thought it would be impossible to get a scholar of her
level to visit us, but this has exceeded all of our hopes and
expectations,” said Shannon Mussett, Associate Professor of Philosophy
and Gender Studies Coordinator at UVU. “We couldn’t be more thrilled
to have her. Engaged learning is part of the spirit of her theory, so
she really ties into UVU’s community and philosophy. She’s going to
bring in a voice that we don’t often get where we are, and it’s a
voice that speaks to issues that matter to every person.”
bell hooks (née Gloria Watkins) is a distinguished professor of
English at City College in New York. Born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky in
1952, hooks received her B.A. from Stanford University in 1973, her M.A.
in 1976 from the University of Wisconsin and her Ph.D. in 1983 from the
University of California-Santa Cruz. She has held positions as professor
of African and African-American studies and English at Yale University,
associate professor of women’s studies and American literature at
Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and as distinguished lecturer of
English Literature at the City College of New York. She has published
more than 30 books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles,
appeared in several documentary films and participated in various public
lectures. In 1992, her book “Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and
Feminism” was named one of the 20 most influential women’s books in
the last 20 years by Publishers Weekly.
“bell hooks deliberately writes so that it’s accessible to
everybody,” Mussett said. “She intentionally speaks to everyone. Her
books are clearly written so that anyone can pick them up and get
something out of them. She will speak to many different kinds of
students and the paths they take. The event is open for every person to
attend, whoever wants to come. It’s the whole spirit of her theory.
It’s not in any way to be closed off from anyone.”
The lecture will begin at 4 p.m. in the Ragan Theater on Monday,
March 29, 2010. It is general admission seating and open to the public.
There will be a question and answer session following her talk.

Head on over to the SHAFT website to hear a TED lecture by Sam Harris on science and morality.  He basically argues against the is-ought problem and promotes an ‘ethics of human flourishing’ which can be informed by science.  I (Kleiner) posted a very long comment in which I point out the striking similarities between Harris’ view and Aristotelian/Thomistic eudaimonistic natural law ethics.  To be perfectly honest I don’t just point them out, I gloat.

… is dark. Dark matter is, for the most part, matter that doesn’t show itself in any way except through gravitation. Dark energy, we think, explains why the universe keeps getting bigger faster. Beyond these facts, there’s not a lot we know about these two things. Which together constitute just about everything. (That “etc.” in the chart includes everything we can possibly see, including ourselves.) [image from Wikipedia]

Here is an article describing some recent “findings” suggesting that the economics of early farming communities helped to create the basic notion of fairness. (My scare quotes are there since I can’t really see that the researchers have proven anything. They’ve taken some people living today that they think are kinda sorta like people living thousands of years ago, and have them play a few simple games, and draw their conclusions. Seems dubious, but what do I know?)

The University of Montevallo has a “life raft” debate each year.  They imagine that a catastrophe has eliminated the entire population save the few hundred people in the audience and 6 professors.  There is room for only 1 professor on the life raft, so each has to make an argument for why their discipline in the most indispensable to human flourishing and so is the most deserving of the final seat on the raft.

“Every student getting a liberal arts degree worries at some point that their education might actually be useless.  That’s what makes the life raft idea a funny idea, and a serious one.  It is a forum for the students to say to their professors, ‘Make us believe in the value of what we are doing here.'”

Click here and move to 42:27 of the show for the segment.  Or here for the life raft debate homepage.

Thoughts on radio show?  Thoughts on which discipline is most deserving of the final seat in the raft?