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| DATE |
SPEAKER /
RESPONDENT |
TOPIC |
VIDEO |
| Mon Sept 24, 7
pm Jundt 110 |
Doug Kries, Philosophy, Gonzaga University Tom Jeannot, Philosophy, Gonzaga University other panel members TBA |
"Fides et
Ratio: the 20th Anniversary"
A panel discussion of the ongoing value and significance of Pope St John Paul II's encyclical Fides et ratio (promulgated September 14, 1998). This event is part of a series of events commerorating the 20th anniversary of Fides et ratio cosponsored with the Gonzaga Faith & Reason Institute. See the Socratic Club home page for a full listing of these events. |
|
| Mon Oct 15,
5:30 pm Jundt 110 |
Paul DePalma, Computer Science, Gonzaga University | "The Private Lives of Cyborgs, the Decay
of Self, and the Melancholy of Scholars" Why are people are willing to give up their selves to Google, Facebook, and all the rest? Following Walter J. Ong, S.J., and many others, I argue that we are slowly becoming different people, different from those Americans who, just two generations ago, protected their privacy by holding telephone conversations in wooden boxes with folding doors. I will argue that privacy is historically contingent. Artifacts from ancient Greece to the 17th century, suggest that the inner life, a self, a soul, a consciousness, inaccessible to any other human being without direct consent, did not begin to form until the early modern period. The invention of letter press printing and subsequent inventions like tables of contents, indices, and pagination played a causal role. Norbert Elias has argued that the courtesy books in the late medieval-early modern period chronicle a retreat into the private sphere of things once done in public. These include detailed advice on nose blowing, spitting, and food service. The appearance of private diaries in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is especially strong evidence for a growing self. The self that came into existence under particular historical and technological circumstances is now going out of existence. The evidence is everywhere: informality in speech and writing, the retreat of formal, ritualized dress, the flipped classroom where professors are encouraged to talk less and hear more. In just the past decade, a former senator has appeared in an ad declaring that there is hope for sufferers from erectile disfunction, a vice-presidential candidate coyly winked at her audience during a foreign policy interview, the once dour New York Times, published a confessional series on the struggles of one woman with her psychiatric meds, and the word “memoirist” has been coined to describe a writer whose profession is to produce serial, confessional biographies. The self of the early modern period has eroded, under pressure from the electronic media with its relentless informality and person-centeredness. This is not a judgment, only a simple attempt to make sense of puzzling behaviors. Along the way, I’ll read a wonderful passage from Robert Burton’s 17th century extravaganza, The Anatomy of Melancholy. |
|
| Mon Nov 5,
5:30 pm Jundt 110 |
Dan Churchwell, Associate Director of Program Outreach,
Acton Institute |
"Evangelical Christian
Reflections on the Significance of Fides
et Ratio" This event is part of a series of events commerorating the 20th anniversary of Fides et ratio cosponsored with the Gonzaga Faith & Reason Institute. See the Socratic Club home page for a full listing of these events. |
|
| Mon Dec 3,
5:30 pm Jundt 110 |
Rose Mary Volbrecht, Professor Emerita, Philosophy, Gonzaga University | "Last
Lecture" Dr Volbrecht retired from the Philosophy Department in Spring 2018 after years of service to the Department and to Gonzaga University. This talk is an opportunity for her to look back and reflect on her career and work as a philosopher. |
INFORMATION
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