On the 22nd of February ECLA hosted a lecture by Professor Richard Kraut on his book What is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being (Harvard UP 2007). Richard Kraut is a Professor at Northwestern University. His interests include contemporary moral and political philosophy, as well as the ethics and political thought of Socrates, Plato and
TagPhilosophy
Nietzsche and the Third Reich: Max Whyte on the Nazified Nietzsche
On January 30th, Max Whyte, Harper-Schmidt Fellow at the University of Chicago, gave a lecture at ECLA entitled “Nietzsche and the Third Reich”, in which he presented and analyzed some of the ways in which Nietzsche’s philosophy was used for the political purposes of the German National Socialists. From the very beginning, the lecturer stated
Heinrich Meier: A Political Confrontation
On the evening of October 27th ECLA was honored with a lecture by the highly-respected German scholar Heinrich Meier. Meier has written extensively on Carl Schmitt, a controversial political theorist whose work has received increasing attention in the past three decades. In the lead-up to Meier’s lecture, Schmitt and his theories emerged as a topic of
Homage to Heinrich Von Kleist
Reading Kleist’s stories hurts, he stabs a dagger into my heart, I feel the world is wrapped in hopelessness, I feel paralyzed, and I feel something is true. Living can be a difficult task and involves mistakes, and this is brought painfully to life in Kleist’s writings. The uncertainty of life is brought forth in
The Magus Of The North: Johann Georg Hamann
Johann Georg Hamann is arguably the most extraordinary thinker and writer of the late 18th century, and studying his works leads one to wonder why he is so little known. Compared with his contemporaries such as Immanuel Kant who was his friend, (although they were usually in radical disagreement on philosophical matters) and those who
“God Is Dead.” Long Live God? The “Future of an Illusion” Foretold
On good authority, I know that many of the people who came to attend Julia Kristeva’s lecture (“The forces of monotheism confronting the need to believe”) at Haus der Kulturen der Welt on March 8th, did so me more for the speaker than for the subject as such. And how could you not get excited?
Dynamics of Modernity
A week’s worth of immersion in Renaissance art requires both time for contemplation and occasion for discourse. As such, the spring term’s core course on Values of Florentine Renaissance commenced with a guest lecture by the prominent Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller. Professor Heller broached the topic of historical interpretation by briefly discussing Goethe and Hegel’s
This Is Hungary Calling
On April 26 the students and faculty of ECLA had the privilege of welcoming Agnes Heller, one of the greatest living European intellectuals. Heller has become an outspoken critic of the political changes occurring in her native Hungary, where she now lives after many years teaching at the New School for Social Research in New