Hilary Putnam
The Depths and Shallows of Experience
Thursday May 9 2002, 7:00- 9:00PM, Corwin Pavilion, University Center
Discussant: Hubert Schwyzer, Philosophy
Discussant: Bruno Latour
|
Abstract
|
This lecture will approach the broad themes
to which this series is devoted, the themes implicit in speaking
of "Science, Religion and Human Experience" by interrogating
the notion of experience itself. Both in life and in philosophical
reflection, experience is sometimes seen as intrinsically shallow,
as mere surface, and sometimes as deep. This "facedness"
of experience has deep significance for each of these three themes;
but this significance is often misconceived (as when science is
thought of as dealing only with the shallows, as by, for instance,
Heidegger, and religion as dealing only with the depths). This lecture
will explore ways of conceiving the relations between our themes
that avoid these familiar stereotypes.
|
 |
Hilary Putnam is Cogan University
Professor (Emeritus) at Harvard University, where he taught for 35
years. Before joining the faculty of Harvard, he was Professor of
the Philosophy of Science at M.I.T. He has also taught at Northwestern
University and Princeton University. He is a past President of the
American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division), the Philosophy
of Science Association, and the Association for Symbolic Logic. He
is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Corresponding
Fellow of the British Academy and holds a number of honorary degrees,
including degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, the University
of Athens, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Putnam has written extensively on issues in many areas of philosophy
- metaphysics and epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy
of language, philosophy of mind, the theory of value, and American
Pragmatism. In recent years Putnam has also written on Jewish philosophy
and philosophy of religion, including articles on the Negative Theology
of Maimonides, an introduction to a volume by Rosenzweig and an essay
on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. |
Top
of Page
|
Abstract
Bio
