Lurie Conference Room, Higgins University Center, Clark University
This talk looks at the wide-ranging challenges to traditional marriage posed by same-sex marriage, nonmarital co-habitation, alternative family structures, and single parenthood. Do these trends signal a disintegration of family values or do they constitute a welcome diversity in family forms? Should we reinforce traditional marriage, reform it, or abolish legal marriage altogether?
Sponsored by the Government Department, the Higgins School of Humanities, and the Philosophy Department, Clark University.
Molly Shanley is Professor of Political Science and Margaret Stiles Halleck Chair at Vassar College
Lurie Conference Room, Higgins University Center, Clark University
The paper explores the belief that natural objects have a value of their own -- a value that in no way depends on what they offer us. I trace the history of the belief, from ancient acceptance to modern suspicion, and then look closely at an early twentieth-century attempt to rehabilitate it.
This lecture is sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities and the Department of Philosophy, Clark University.
Winkler is Class of 1919 Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. His books include Berkeley: An Interpretation (Oxford University Press, 1989) and an abridgment of Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding (Hackett Publishing Company, 1996). From 2000 to 2005 he was editor, with Elizabeth Radcliffe, of the journal Hume Studies.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 4:00 p.m.
Lurie Conference Room, Higgins University Center, Clark University
Are we living in a Matrix? And if so, is our perception of the external world illusory? Many people, including philosophers from Descartes to Morpheus, say yes: if we're in a Matrix, then the ordinary objects that we seem to see don't exist, and we're radically deluded. I say no: even if we're in a Matrix, ordinary objects still exist, and most of our beliefs about the external world are correct. Instead, we can see the Matrix hypothesis as a metaphysical hypothesis about the underlying nature of our world.
This George Kneller Chair Lecture is sponsored by the George Kneller Fund and the Department of Philosophy, Clark University.
Chalmers is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University.