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
TagMartin Lipman
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
ECLA Annual Conference Lecture: Ing. Michal Kravcík
On 8 May 2008, the fourth in the lecture series of the ECLA Annual Conference on Water, Ing. Michal Kravcík expounded a new paradigm of thinking about water. In the old water paradigm, we believed that humanity has little impact on the natural water cycle and that this cycle has a negligible effect on global
ECLA Discussion: Richard Hersh, a Night of More than a Discussion on Education
On Monday evening, just after dinner, students and faculty gathered for a discussion session on education in one of ECLA’s three student houses. The night turned out to be maybe one the most serious discussions we have had and maybe one of the most honest community experiences at ECLA. The discussion was introduced by Richard
Stefano Evangelista on Walter Pater
On 13 February Dr. Stefano Evangelista of Trinity College, Oxford, presented an inspiring guest lecture on Walter Pater’s vision of the Renaissance as a state of mind. Walter Pater (1839 – 1894) was an English art and literary critic at Oxford. Although he was a shy and peaceful man, his book The Renaissance, Studies in
Dr. Jobst Welge on the Decameron
On 28 January Dr. Jobst Welge of Freie Universität zu Berlin presented a guest lecture on Boccaccio’s Decameron. Written in 1348, the Decameron tells of the brigata, a band of three young men and seven young women who flee from plague-ridden Florence to a pastoral idyll, where they feast and tell stories – ten stories
Enjoying Berlin, Public Lectures by Alain Badiou
Things happen in a city like Berlin. There is almost too much to do, too many things to experience. Ground-breaking exhibitions, grand festivals and public lectures by world-famous thinkers are on constant offer. So it was that on Thursday 18 and Friday 19 January, the renowned, left-wing French philosopher Alain Badiou gave two public lectures