More philosophy on the ULS agenda

Another prominent philosopher is coming to USF to speak for the University Lecture Series.

Rudolf Makkreel, a philosophy professor from Emory University, has published two books and was editor for the Journal of the History of Philosophy from 1983-1998.

He will be speaking as part of the Department of Philosophy’s conference being held this weekend. Another philosopher, Michael Friedman, will be speaking on Friday.

Joanne Waugh, director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Philosophy, said that Makkreel’s lecture will expand on some of the ideas that Friedman will raise on Friday.

“We chose Makkreel because we felt that his talk would provide the perfect complement to Friedman,” Waugh said.

Although the Department of Philosophy’s conference is typically used as a way to recruit graduate students into the program, this year they hope to bring in students from all branches of the arts and sciences.

“We wanted to open up this talk for the lecture series sponsorship because of the appeal to scholars of other disciplines,” Waugh said.

Makkreel will be speaking mainly about his book, Imagination and Interpretation in Kant: the Hermeneutical Import of the Critique of Judgment Imagination and Interpretation in Kant. Despite the book’s daunting title, Waugh said the information is not just for philosophy graduate students.

“The talk will be helpful for students interested in any discipline that deals with the science of interpretation and historical issues,” she said.

Jill Reagan, programming activities director for Student Activities, was also confident that the lecture could reach out to non philosophy students.

“Although this lecture has a smaller target audience than some of our other lectures, we felt it would be something that could benefit the students at USF,” she said.

Makkreel’s lecture, titled “Imagination and Interpretation in Kant,” will specifically deal with the cognition-knowledge distinction in Kant’s philosophy and it’s implications for self-understanding, according to the ULS Web site.

Waugh said students who aren’t familiar with Kant’s philosophy should still be able to understand the lecture.

“Certainly if you are familiar with Kant, you will have an advantage, but the lecture will be independent enough as a talk that anybody can appreciate it,” she said.

Because the lecture is being held on Saturday, Reagan said it will be more difficult to attract students to the lecture.

“Saturday is not usually a good day for students,” she said. “But if it’s a strong show, people will certainly come.”

Makkreel’s lecture will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in MC 296. The lecture is free and open to the public.

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