Category Archives: Lectures

Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans as Native(,) American Tragedy

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Although American political independence is traditionally considered to have been achieved on July 4, 1776, the formation of a distinct American national identity took considerably longer than one day. Indeed, for many years after the successful conclusion of the American Revolution, American intellectuals of all kinds worked hard to forge the “new American”. James Fenimore Cooper was one such intellectual and The Last of the Mohicans the product of such work. In this talk we will explore the ways in which Fenimore Cooper’s work of historical fiction — it was published in 1826 and subtitled “A Narrative of 1757” — participated in the shaping of an emerging American identity. We will also consider the ways in which it continues to influence the notion of “Americanness.” Continue reading →

The Koran: The Word of God Returns

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For most Western readers, the Koran is a deceptive text and thus difficult to appreciate. Its characterization as yet another “scripture” from the Semitic tradition that spawned the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament — with the “same” God and many of the “same” figures — naturally leads one to approach it with the same implicit assumptions and expectations that one typically brings to the Bible. Yet the Western reader who does so is likely to disappointed — even outraged — as these assumptions and expectations are violated and this characterization made questionable. Racial, ethnic and/or religious prejudices often deepen the displeasure. Alternately, Western readers who approach the Koran with a keen awareness of its (and their own) historical/cultural foundations are more likely to enjoy (and profit from) their encounter with it.

This lecture will demonstrate one way in which a modern Westerner can successfully read the Koran. On the one hand, we will make a survey of the text: its structure and major themes and the conditions which produced it. On the other hand, we will look at some of the strategies through which a reader can transcend limitations imposed by his own cultural heritage. By working both tracks simultaneously, one can fairly easily come to appreciate this classic text on its own terms. Continue reading →

The Apology: Socrates’ Defense, Or the Gospel According to Plato

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Because the West has long thought of itself as the fusion of Greek “reason” and Hebrew (Judeo-Christian) “faith”, the secularization which followed the Enlightenment has typically been seen as the West’s disavowal of its Hebrew heritage in favor of its Greek one. Indeed, it is not uncommon today for modem secular humanists and classical Greeks to be considered much of a muchness. Unfortunately, such a view tends to blind us to important features of Greek life, even in figures as seemingly familiar to us as Socrates and Plato. A careful consideration of Plato’s Apology, however, can help resurrect these religious features of these two men who can be seen in many ways as not dissimilar to a range of Hebrew religious figures including, perhaps most strikingly, Jesus and Paul respectively. Continue reading →

Self-Evident Truths? Origin Myths and the Founding of America

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Every people has stories that it tells about itself-stories about where it comes from, about its place in the universe, about its essential characteristics. Indeed, one of the key functions of “culture” is to impress these stories on each succeeding generation. When successful, this process makes these stories so “obvious” to insiders as to be self-evidently true (despite the fact that these same stories remain self-evidently dubious to outsiders). In these respects, the American people and American culture are no different than any others. From the beginning, Americans have constructed stories —political, historical, literary — as a way of defining themselves and their place in the world and thus as a way of shaping their destiny. A look at works as diverse as The Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, The Scarlet Letter, The Gettysburg Address, and “Paul Revere’s Ride,” can illustrate this phenomenon and help us temporarily stand outside ourselves as we seek a better understanding of who we truly are. Continue reading →

The Scientific Construction of Developmental Norms

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Although the notion of a dialectical (or reciprocal) relationship between psychology and culture has been nominally acknowledged for over a generation, it is only recently and tentatively that the study of developmental norms has begun to be shaped by this fact.  This paper presents a theoretical outline of this relationship and the resulting need for a self-conscious (or reflexive) study of developmental norms. Continue reading →

An ‘Is’ and ‘Ought’ of Developmental Psychology: Toward a Scientific Study of Human Ontogeny

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This paper is an attempt to weave an account of developmental psychology that is alternately descriptive and normative.  In the descriptive mode it takes the discipline as data for which it seeks an explanation.  In the normative mode, it takes the discipline as an enterprise for which it seeks optimal goals, theories and methodologies.  Descriptive, it is anthropological, examining a Western sociocultural artifact.  Normative, it is psychological, participating in a scientific undertaking to systematically study human ontogeny.  Descriptive, it is on the outside looking in; normative, it is on the inside looking out.  Collectively this paper claims that developmental psychology neither is what it says it is nor what it ought to be and asks: What is this project called “developmental psychology” and how ought it best be conducted? Continue reading →

Somebody Killed Something: Ambiguous Hero and Beast in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’

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Since its publication in 1871 as part of Through the Looking-glass, Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” has become one of the quintessential examples of “nonsense poetry” in the English language.  Such a classification largely reflects the poem’s apparent non-referentiality when set against the background of a theory of language that claims unambiguous reference as the sole (or at least, highest) goal of language use.  Since Carroll used a number of words that appeared to have “no sense”, and hence no referents, “Jabberwocky” as a whole appeared to be not fully “meaningful”, and hence not fully referential — i.e. the poem appeared to be “nonsense”. Continue reading →