Victor Saenz, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Houston Institute
What good is there in studying philosophy, literature, history, or art? Is such study good for its own sake? What can we learn from the past? Why are the humanities especially suited to teach reasoned argument? How do literature and the arts cultivate our imagination, and is that good? What role, if any, can the humanities play in moral education? No advance preparation required. Dinner provided.
Undergraduates and graduate students welcome.
Meets Tuesdays, 6:15-7:30pm at Martel PDR
10/23 – Good for its own sake? On the intrinsic worth of liberal learning (Zena Hitz, “Why intellectual work matters,” Megan Sullivan, “The gift economy and the point of college”)
10/30 – What can we learn from the past? (Alasdair MacIntyre, from “Epistemological crisis, dramatic narrative, and the philosophy of science;” C.S. Lewis, “On the reading of old books”)
11/6 – The humanities and learning to argue (Martha Nussbaum, from Not for Profit)
11/13 – no meeting
11/20 – Cultivating the imagination through literature and the arts (Martha Nussbaum, continued; Alasdair MacIntyre on the imagination)
11/27 – Scope and limits of education: The humanities and moral character (John Henry Newman, from Idea of a University)
