LEANN BURKE / THE DEPAUW
Thursday and Friday the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics paired up with the DePauw Philosophy Department to bring the Young Philosophers Lecture Series to campus. The event consists of four introductory talks given in Watson Forum on Thursday, and follow up in-depth research talks at the Prindle Institute for each speaker on Friday. Andrew Cullison, ’01 director of DePauw's Prindle Institute brought this series to campus when he returned to DePauw in 2014.
“This is a lecture series designed to have a little something philosophical for everyone,” said Cullison
The talks this year feature young philosophers on the topics of knowledge, art, freedom and non-domination, as well as _______. This year they received approximately 40 papers from interested philosophers and accepted only four to bring to campus. All papers are submitted without names attached in order to avoid bias and pick the most qualified candidates.
In the creation of this lecture series, Cullison looked to present an opportunity not only for students but young philosophers as well. This program gives philosophers early on in their career exposure to the colloquium experience, one that is often reserved for well established philosophers.
Professor Claudia Mills says of the series, “we’re getting to hear cutting edge philosophy from exciting new scholars and we can see what the future of philosophy is going to look like.” Prindle and the Philosophy department have provided an exciting opportunity for students to engage with these young scholars.
The break down of introductory level talks provides something for students with little background in or experience with philosophy. The subsequent research talks then provide something for professors in the field.
After the talk titled, “What is The Meaning of Freedom?” DePauw junior Taylor Beegle said, "I thought her talk was relevant to how negative freedom can hold you back, similar to how cultural divisions can hold people back on this campus.”
In this talk, Dr. Wenner discussed the topics of negative freedom vs. positive freedom and the idea of non-domination. Wenner defined negative freedom to mean “doing what I want, without interference of obstruction” or essentially, “the freedom to be left alone.” On the contrast, she alluded positive freedom to mean, “my desires and preferences are importantly my own.” Wenner follows the idea that positive freedom is a, “reflection of my true self.”
Wenner was careful to make the distinction that neither positive or negative freedom are ideal, but that freedom as non-domination is much more applicable. Wenner along with the other speakers, Dr. Brandon Carey, Dr. Weskey Cray and Dr. Michael Hannon, will be at Prindle tomorrow to do their research talks.
A lunch will be provided between the morning and afternoon sessions for those who attend.