It is difficult to change the way people think, but it becomes possible if we learn first to listen and to accept changes ourselves. I saw this phenomenon at work first-hand when, between 20th and 25th May, I went to Italy to attend the Turin Youth Forum 2008 on ‘Water & Cultures in Dialogue’. The
CategoryAcademic Events
The Twilight Hours of the Class of 2008
June 2008 – the last week of the Academy and Project Years. The first article I wrote on this website raised the question of identity, whether we would live in the tradition of previous years and how we would create our own ways. Looking back, it seems that it is now possible to recognize a
Roger Scruton on ‘Hegel’s conception of private property and its critics’
On Thursday 29 May, ECLA was visited by academic heavyweight, Professor Roger Scruton, who delivered a guest lecture on Hegel’s idea of property and its role in the larger framework of Hegelian philosophy. Scruton introduced Hegel’s theory of property in the context of the work of Locke, one of the so-called ‘social contract’ theorists. Locke
Julia Peters on ‘Hegel’s Theory of Freedom’
On Thursday 22 May Julia Peters, future post-doctoral fellow at ECLA, helped us to understand the notoriously difficult ideas of German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. In a focused lecture, Peters traced Hegel’s argument for the institution of private property as a necessary condition for human freedom. Hegel endorses the idea that institutional constraints allow for freedom
Aileen Douglas ‘A home of her own: female independence in Jane Austen’s Emma’
On 19 May ECLA welcomed Dr. Aileen Douglas of Trinity College Dublin, for a lecture on Jane Austen’s Emma. As in other Austen novels, Emma explores the relationship between marriage and property, connecting the development of the characters and the unfolding plot with wealth and proprietary status. However, Emma represents an exception, in that the
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay. Kleist, Kohlhaas, and the quest for justice” by Sean Allan
On Wednesday 14 May, Sean Allan from Warwick University gave a comprehensive introductory lecture to Michael Kohlhaas and to the background of its author, Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist. Pointing out the paradoxical subtleties within the character of Kohlhaas, Sean Allan warned against one-sided readings of the novella’s plot, which regard the character as either a
ECLA Annual Conference Panel Discussion: ‘Berlin’s Water Management – an Example for others?’
One of the student initiatives during the Annual Conference was to stage a panel discussion, the focus of which would be the issues surrounding the ownership and management of Berlin’s water. This would be placed in the context of global concerns about water access and water management, both in general, and with specific reference to
ECLA Annual Conference – Student Project: Water Fund
During the Annual Conference, projects initiated by students complemented the theoretical framework generated by the guest lectures and the seminars offered by ECLA professors. Such a project, initiated by ECLA student Cholpon Degenbaeva (Kyrgyzstan), under the guidance of the ECLA professor Rafael Ziegler, had as its goal research and proposals which would go into the