2017 Walter A. Strauss Lecture Series: “The Importance of the Sciences—and the Arts”

The Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities will host the final installment of the 2017 Walter A. Strauss Lecture Series Friday, Dec. 1, from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Iris S. and Bert L. Wolstein Research Building auditorium. Philosopher Philip Kitcher, a professor at Columbia University, will present “The Importance of the Sciences—and the Arts.”

Talk details

Today in the U.S. there is much concern about education in the sciences. The reasons offered are typically incomplete. In this talk, Kitcher will offer a more extensive account of why education in the sciences is important for everyone, and will couple it with the thesis that a broad and deep education in the arts and humanities is equally necessary. Learn more and register.

Series details

Kitcher is known for his studies of the role of scientific inquiry in democratic societies from the perspective of the philosophy of pragmatism associated with William James and John Dewey. In his series of three lectures on “Education and Democracy,” Kitcher broadens this inquiry to investigate the aims of education with emphasis on the importance of the humanities and the arts. This lecture series, in memory of Walter A. Strauss (1923-2008), who was the Elizabeth and William T. Treuhaft Professor of Humanities, is generously supported by funds provided by the Paul Wurzburger Endowment.