2009 Fall Philosophy Lecture Schedule
09/08/2009: Toward an Existential Phenomenology of Love: A Re-contextualization of the True Business of the Long Term, Committed Relationship.
Jim Dolan
Psychotherapist and Professional Coach to Legal and Medical Professionals.
In a set of aphoristic propositions, queries, and analogies, this lecture invites attendees a look beneath the surface of the relationships most of us either once lived in, or still do. An operational definition is given of the real business of those relationships, and that which was taken for granted is given new life.
09/22/2009: Everyday Practice of Science: Where Intuition and Passion Meet Objectivity and Logic.
Fred Grinnell, Ph.D.
Professor of Cell Biology and Founder of the Program in Ethics and Science, UT Southwestern Medical Center. Author of The Scientific Attitude.
Scientific facts often are so complicated that only experts can appreciate the details. However, the underlying practice that gives rise to such facts should be understandable by everyone interested in science.
In my new book Everyday Practice of Science, I offer a plain-talk account and demystification of science as world view and life’s work.
I describe how researchers bring their own interests and passions to their work. The interplay between these interests and passions becomes the dynamic of the research community. Exploring this dynamic clarifies the philosophical underpinnings and challenges inherent to the scientific knowledge-building project.
10/13/2009: Thinking with Water.
Irene J. Klaver, Ph.D.
Director, Philosophy of Water Project, University of North Texas.
Through Heraclitus, Wittgenstein, and contemporary efforts of cities to re-think their relation to the river that runs through them, Professor Klaver will present how an element like water surfaces in philosophy and the cultural imagination. She will place the developments of the Trinity River in this context.
To think about water as element or natural resource represents a different cultural framework. She will deal with the question: How to think towards a new environmental mentality? This is a question of enhancing people’s engagement, participation, and interest in their environmental surroundings. Rivers have been anchors of civilization and bones of contention. They are rich ecological and cultural corridors. She will connect these qualities with anthropologist Arjun Appadurai’s notion, the “capacity to aspire,” which functions as a capacity of culture to navigate to a desirable future.
10/27/2009: Psychiatry and the Virtues.
Dr. Kevin Majeres, MD.
Psychiatrist.
In the 4th century B.C., Aristotle described how emotions interact with our thoughts and behaviors, and highlighted how the behavioral process of habituation in turn shapes the emotions. This understanding has grown increasingly relevant in psychiatry today. Beginning in its work with anxiety, and then with addictions, cognitive-behavioral theory has moved toward an understanding of the relationship of intellect, will and emotion that closely mirrors that of Aristotle. Dr. Kevin Majeres, a psychiatrist in private practice, will discuss the relevance of Aristotelian virtue theory to the current practice of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.
11/10/2009: Construmentalism.
Win Galbraith, Ph.D.
PhD in Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science, and Theology, University of Pittsburgh; M.A. Theology, Western Seminary in Holland, Mich.; B.S. philosophy and physics, MIT. Formerly interim department chair, University of Pittsburgh, regional campus, Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science, and Religious Studies.
David Hume pointed out that if the various sciences are drawing universal conclusions from particular premises they are using invalid logic. Kant asked “How is science possible?” Perhaps we should modify that question to “What is it that science is doing?” Since past theories have all proved false, should we conclude that the current crop of theories will also prove false? Or are we making progress? What implications, if any, can we draw from Thomas Kuhn’s work? Here are the answers.
11/24/2009: Toys For Children or Supernormal Sign Stimuli: A Philosophy of Mythology.
David Drumm
Attorney, B.A. in Cultural Anthropology, University of Texas, 1977, Licensed Unity Teacher.
Our Greek intellectual heritage provides us with the two contrasting concepts of Logos - the world of logical, discursive, rational analysis - and Mythos - the world of creative, poetic, playful imagery. What, properly understood, is the relationship between the two? To many, the relationship is explained simply as the inexorable process of the more mature, highly evolved Logos gradually replacing and superseding the more primitive and childish Mythos. An alternative viewpoint is presented by a group of twentieth century thinkers led by Joseph Campbell, and including Leo Frobenius, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung, and supported by surprising advances in the study of archaeology, anthropology, and animal behavior. The roots of this line of development can be further traced back to the philosophies of Friedrich Schelling and others of the romantic post-Kantian German tradition. This talk will present he essential elements and developmental history of that alternative theory.
12/08/2009: Stoicism's Influence on Early Christianity.
Bruce McDonald, Ph.D.
Texas Wesleyan University.
My talk will deal with the nature of Stoicism and its influence on the early Christian Church. We will discuss history and essential tenets of Stoicism, with examples. I will be discussing Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius, among others.
We will discuss influential ideas that the early Church used in its presentation of the Christian gospel. These will include the idea of the “divine spark” in every human, related, perhaps, to the Hebrew idea of humans being made in the image of God. Origen of Alexandria also enjoyed the stoic idea of cyclical re-creations of the world.
We will discuss the gradual replacement of Stoic influence by Platonism, particularly after the rise of Monasticism and Asceticism. With the ascetic view of the “evil” of the world, emphasis began to be on escaping from it, not on the Stoic concept of self-control in order to make life work better.
The marked influence of Stoicism on the North African Christian apologist Tertullian (fl. 200), and how he was different from other Christian writers in this respect. The Stoic emphasis on self-control and discipline was very much in line with his rigorous ideas about how the Christian life should be lived.
01/12/2010: Identity on the Way to Mars: Technology and the Contention Between the Individual and Polity Identities.
HB Paksoy, Ph.D.
Online Faculty / Mentor, Baker College.
Throughout history, it is possible to observe a continuous contention between the individual and the polity identities. This intra-communal bifurcation manifests itself in all activities of human endeavor, including economic, political and personal versus sovereign states rights. However, never before the role of technology has been elevated to the present level, contesting all comers, to reach absolute supremacy. This contention is not only to replace previous holders of levers to rule or dictate, but to reach levels of control heretofore unknown. Obviously, technology, without human guidance cannot achieve a result. Left unchecked, any governing strata can utilize the technological means to deny any segment of society the individual rights that have been at least philosophically established.
01/26/2010: Postmodernism: What It Does for Us and What It Doesn't.
Darrell Bock, Ph.D.
Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, a former Humboldt Scholar at the University of Tübingen Germany, PhD from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
I will outline the strengths and problems with post-modernism as I see it.
I will show how it is a mixed bag in many ways, freeing us up to appreciate other views but ultimately leaving us in a weaker place in terms of assessing differences.
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