USUPhilosophy

Those that took the Plato class, those interested in Continental philosophy, political philosophy, or people just generally interested in philosophy will be excited about this upcoming event:

I have a DVD of a few panel discussions from a conference held at York University in 1978.  The discussions are amusing and incredibly interesting.  I thought we would start with a panel on ‘Reading the Republic’.  There are some very heavy hitters on the panel – Eric Voegelin, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Allen Bloom, and Frederick Lawrence (a prof of mine at BC).  

The panel discussion is 2 hours, and I thought we would want an hour or so to discuss it.  So that is a longer event than usual.  I suppose we could break it up, but  the discussion holds together best in one viewing I think.  

Please post suggestions about the day of the week that is most convenient for a longer philosophy event, as well as the time.  4-7pm?  3-6?  6-9?  I suppose we could order a pizza.  …  A week or so into the semester I will schedule it.  If there is interest, we could schedule the other 2 things on the DVD (an hour-long lecture by Voegelin on the ‘Structures of Consciousness’ and another panel discussion on reading and criticism).

New pages; find them through the “Course webpages” link.

Interesting article here on how little consequence scientific theories (in particular here cog sci evidence for determinism) have on culture and decision making.

Here is an interesting article on how belief in God allowed scientific inquiry to get underway, and how all atheistic scientists still act as if God existed.  They might think they can kick aside God and go about their science.  But Novak reminds them of Nz – if God is dead, then reason is dead too.  Upon this realization, “Zarathustra wept.”