Santa Fe Events
Lectures
May/June 2008
The Ancient Conflict between Poetry and Philosophy: Created by Plato, Resolved by Wittgenstein
Howard Zeiderman
St. John’s College, Annapolis
Friday, May 2, 8 p.m.
Great Hall, Peterson Student Center
Ever since Plato described and perhaps created thestruggle between Poetry and Philosophy, they have battled for the possession of truth. In his lecture Zeiderman explores how two works byWittgenstein point to a possible resolution to the struggle we face in resolving this opposition.Wittgenstein directly confronted the relation between Philosophy and Poetry in the Tractatus and then reconsidered his conclusions in the Philosophical Investigations. While these are flawed attempts, the works do carry within them suggestions for how we can reconcile our needs for philosophy and poetry. No familiarity with either of Wittgenstein’s works is needed to follow the talk.
Howard Zeiderman graduated from St. John’s College, Annapolis, and did his graduate work in philosophy at Princeton. In 1973, he joined the faculty of St. John’sat the Santa Fe campus and after three years moved over to Annapolis where he continues to teach. He is the principal creator of the Touchstones Discussion Project (TDP), which implements a seminar program in schools and communities—from civic groups to senior citizens to prisons—worldwide. The mission of TDP is to help students and adults overcome passivity and develop new cognitive approaches commensurate with an emerging globalized world. Currently, Zeiderman is conducting an extended program for the senior analysts at the CIA and this summer will conduct a program in Tanzania for that country’s government ministers and leaders in their private sector. This event is free and open to the public.
Bread Loaf Lecture Series
Billy Collins
Friday, June 13, 7 p.m.
Meem Library Placita
Billy Collins, born in New York City in 1941, was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001-2003. He is the author of several books of poetry, including She Was Just Seventeen (2006), The Trouble with Poetry (2005), Nine Horses (2002), Sailing Alone Around the Room (2001), Picnic, Lightning (1998), The Art of Drowning (1995), Questions About Angels (1991), The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988), Video Poems (1980), and Pokerface (1977). Collins’poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks, and a variety of periodicals, including Poetry, American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Harper’s, Paris Review, and The New Yorker.