Colloquium and Other Events  

 

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY

COLLOQUIUM SERIES

 

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012

WATSON  HALL, ROOM 517 @ 4:30 p.m.

 

Richard Smith (University of Durham)

 

Title: “Re-reading Plato:  The Slow Cure for Knowledge”

 

Abstract

 

What might be called the mainstream of Western philosophy has sought to discover clear and distinct ideas on which accounts of truth, goodness and justice can be built with confidence. Plato has often been seen as central to this tradition, and even as the founder of it.  In this paper I suggest that we should read him rather as a ‘light’ or ‘edifying’ thinker than as a ‘systematic’ one; that he offers us a kind of therapy, a way of dealing with the finitude of our human condition, especially our tendency to what I here call knowingness. To read him in this fashion requires us to engage with the many layers of his dialogues and to appreciate the distinctive kind of irony to be found in them.

  

EVERYONE WELCOME

*If you have accessibility requirements, please contact Marilyn Lavoie (lavoiemm@queensu.ca)

 

 

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The Queen's Philosophy colloquium series is one of the best anywhere, with well-attended talks by internal and external speakers every Thursday during the term, and extra occasional lectures.