Calendar

​Cinzia Arruzza, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research, will give a talk entitled “Spirit in Plato’s Republic and the Tyrant’s Psychopathology”

Abstract

The nature and function of spirit is one of the mysteries of Plato’s Republic. Throughout the dialogue, spirit is said to be responsible for propensity to anger, savagery, violence, harshness, and perpetual war, desire for victory and power, arrogance and stubbornness, but also courage, desire for honor, sensitivity to what appears just, rebellion against a perceived injustice, and alliance with reason in the conflict with the appetitive part. What is the unity at the basis of these various manifestations of spirit? In the first part of this paper I would like to try to answer the question concerning both the nature of spirit and its relation to the other two parts of the soul. In the second part of the paper, I will briefly discuss the tyrant’s case, in order to show how spirit may work and play a role within what should be considered as a special case of psychopathology.

This event is sponsored by The New School for Social Research.

Nickolas Pappas, Professor,The Graduate Center, CUNY, will give a talk entitled: “A Little Move toward Greek Philosophy: Reassessing the Statesman Myth”

Abstract:

The myth told in Plato’s Statesman separates the present from an “age of Cronus,” sometimes thought of as a golden age in which political order as we know it was unnecessary. And yet this golden age may not have been a time of happiness, if its inhabitants did not practice philosophy. The subtle, even evanescent difference between our time and that time re-imagines the founding of philosophical institutions, which turn out to be almost indistinguishable from political ones.

This event is sponsored by The New School for Social Research.

Critiques of beauty in art and in everyday life assume the traditional idea that aesthetic value is a kind of power to please. An entirely new picture comes from a close look at intricately structured networks of agents who interact with each other in aesthetic enterprises. Aesthetic values give us reasons to act in the context of social practices. The “network theory” explains why, despite the critiques, beauty never disappeared from art, why it’s as humanly important as ever, and how it can be harnessed to address pressing social problems.

Introduction by Noël Carroll, CUNY Graduate Center

a lecture by Dominic McIver Lopes
Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, the author of Understanding Pictures, Sight and Sensibility,  Computer Art, Beyond Art, Four Arts of Photography, and Being for Beauty (in progress).

6pm, Wednesday, 27 September
Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College
(North Building, 4th Floor)

Sponsored by the departments of
Art and Philosophy

You probably know the Lucas Brothers from their Netflix comedy special On Drugs or their appearances in TV shows and movies like Lady Dynamite and 22 Jump Street. You might not know that they are serious students of philosophy. Join us on Wednesday, November 28th at 7:30 PM in the Strand Bookstore’s 2nd Floor Art Department as Kenny and Keith Lucas join Michael Brownstein (Associate Professor of Philosophy at John Jay College and author of The Implicit Mind) to discuss how philosophy shapes their comedy, how comedy works, the weirdly popular idea that comedians are today’s philosophers, and more.

The price of admission is a $5 gift certificate to the Strand. (You were probably going to spend $5 at the Strand some time soon, anyway.) Please purchase tickets here and share the Facebook event. I will take all the help I can get in spreading the word.

Stay tuned for more info about Kwame Anthony Appiah’s December 4th talk about identity at Philosophy in the Library!