|
Fall 2005 Courses
|
|
FROM THE DEATH OF NATURE TO THE SCIENCE OF LIFE,
FROM THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY TO THE TWENTY-FIRST
Three Tuesdays, October 18, 25, and November 1
12:30 - 2:00 p.m.
Christ the King Lutheran Church,
2353 Rice Boulevard at Greenbriar
Adult Forum Room, downstairs
John
H. Zammito will analyze recent developments in understanding
man's relationship to science and nature. He is the John Antony Weir Professor
of History, professor of German and Slavic studies, and chairman of the
German department at Rice University, where he teaches European intellectual
history.
OCTOBER 18: THE "DEATH OF NATURE" IN THE SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION
Zammito will examine what happened to the Western idea of nature during
the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century by analyzing
Carolyn Merchant's 1980 book, The
Death of Nature. Merchant combined history of science with feminism
to produce a scathing indictment of the violence of science, which stripped
spiritual integrity from natural objects and thereby rendered nature "dead"
and available to humans for use and abuse.
To read an interview with Carolyn Merchant,
please click here.
OCTOBER 25: FROM ENLIGHTENMENT VITALISM TO ROMANTIC NATURPHILOSOPHIE
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were swept by a powerful
current of scientific and philosophical innovation. Zammito will describe
the idea that nature was "alive" with forces (electricity, magnetism,
heat, chemical bonding, and, above all, organic life). This Romantic philosophy
of nature has not generally been taken seriously as science (or philosophy).
Zammito will reconsider the validity of this view.
NOVEMBER 1: NATURA NATURANS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Our contemporary world is in the throes of an upheaval in the life sciences,
and we are faced with unprecedented challenges to determine what it means
to be human and what we should permit ourselves to do to nature and ourselves.
Zammito will discuss whether ideas from history and philosophy hold clues
for orienting ourselves as humans in our "brave new world" of
biotechnology.
Links to sites outside of The Houston
Seminar are not under their control and The Houston Seminar is not responsible
for the information or links you may find there. The presence of
the link is not intended to imply The Houston Seminar endorsement. |
Apollo and Daphne, 1622-25
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Galleria Borghese
©1999 Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH,
Rome: Art & Architecture, Marco Bussagli, Editor
|
