To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first annual lecture series in the Institute for Philosophy and Religion, we are exploring an idea that was dear to the Institute’s founders, the idea of the “Person.” The Institute grew out of the movement known as Boston Personalism, a tradition that shaped Martin Luther King, Jr. and his generation of young scholars. We will ask whether this school of metaphysical speculation and moral commitment has anything to teach us today. We invite anyone who is interested to join the discussion.
“James’s Barking Crab: Becoming a Person in a Mechanistic Universe”
David Lamberth, Professor of Philosophy and Theology, Harvard Divinity School
Wednesday, September 19, 2018 6 p.m.
Boston University School of Theology
745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 325
Video available here.
“Why We Matter and Why We Are: The Value and Ontology of Persons”
Marya Schectman, Professor of Philosophy, University of Illinois Chicago
Wednesday, October 3, 2018 5 p.m.
Boston University School of Theology
745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 325
Video available here.
“Personhood and Interpretations of Embodied Cognition”
Shaun Gallagher, Lillian and Morrie Moss Professor of Philosophy, University of Memphis
Wednesday, October 24, 2018 5 p.m.
Boston University School of Theology
745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 325
Video available here.
“Interdependent Personhood and Relational Ethics: A Tibetan Perspective”
Sarah Jacoby, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Northwestern University
Wednesday, November 7, 2018 5 p.m.
Boston University School of Theology
745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 325
Video available here.
“Person and Community in the Age of Anxiety”
Margarita Mooney, Associate Professor, Princeton Theological Seminary
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 5 p.m.
Boston University School of Theology
745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 325
Video available here.
“The World as Person”
Randall Auxier, Professor of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Wednesday, December 5, 2018 5 p.m.
Boston University School of Theology
745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 325
Video available here.
“Nonself as Omnipresent Interpersonalities: Tiantai’s Four Steps for Rereading Impermanence as the Eternity of All Subjective States”
Brook Ziporyn, Professor of Chinese Religion, Philosophy, and Comparative Thought, University of Chicago Divinity School
Friday, March 29, 2019 5 p.m.
Boston University School of Theology
745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 325
Video available here.
“The Demise of Personalism, the Disappearance of Moral Knowledge, and the Prospects for Turning the Tide: a Plea for Analytic Personalism”
Aaron Preston, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Valparaiso University
Friday, April 12, 2019 5 p.m.
Boston University School of Theology
745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 325
Video available here.
