Potter Memorial Past Lecturers

Past Lecturers

#57 Elisabeth Lloyd

Indiana University
“The Female Orgasm Debates: How Social & Theoretical Biases Influence Science”
March 26, 2020 – CANCELLED

#56 John Martin Fischer

University of California, Riverside
“Near-Death Experiences: A New Interpretation”
April 4, 2019

#55 Amy Allen

Penn State
“The End of Progress”
To see Lecure:
https://youtu.be/fLpNlwyJoSQ
To see Transcript:
https://pppa.wsu.edu/documents/2018/02/the-end-of-progress.pdf
November 29, 2017

#54 Christia Mercer

Columbia University
“Criminal justice, mass incarceration, and the undermining of democracy”
March 30, 2017

#53 Elliott Sober

University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Darwin and Intelligent Design”
September 10, 2016

#52 Alfred Mele

Florida State University
“Free Will and Neuroscience: What Do Old-School and New-Wave Studies Show?”
January 23, 2014

#51: Allen Buchanan

Duke University
“Why Evolutionary Explanations of Morality Fail “
January 17, 2013
Audiostream: Real

#50: Geoffrey Sayre-McCord

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“Evolution and Rational Agency”
October 27, 2011
Audiostream: Real

#49: Hubert L. Dreyfus

University of California, Berkeley
“Luring Back the Gods: Polytheism from The Odyssey to Moby Dick“
September 17, 2010

#48: Nancy Sherman

Georgetown University
“The Untold War: The Guilt They Carry”
March 25, 2010

#47: Daniel C. Dennett

Tufts University
“From Animal to Person: How Cultural Evolution Builds Human Minds”
September 11, 2008
Videostream: Real / Windows Media

#46: Bernard Rollin

Colorado State University
“Animal Rights as a Mainstream Phenomenon: Emerging Social Ethics for Animals”
March 4, 2008

#45: Harry Frankfurt

Princeton University
“Getting It Right”
October 5, 2006

#44: Linda Martín Alcoff

Syracuse University
“The Critique of Identity Politics”
September 29, 2005

#43: Noam Chomsky

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Imminent Crises: Responsibilities and Opportunities”
April 22, 2005
Videostream: Real / Windows Media

#42: Andrew Light

New York University
“Restoring Landscapes of Memory”
October 30, 2003

#41: Philip J. Ivanoe

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Filial Piety as a Virtue”
September 12, 2002

#40: Robert C. Solomon

University of Texas at Austin
“Nietzsche’s Fatalism”
October 11, 2001

#39: J.N. Mohanty

Temple University
“Philosophy at the End of the Twentieth Century: Retrospect and Prospect”
November 2, 2000

#38: Lucius T. Outlaw Jr.

Haverford College
“Is There Such a Thing as African American Philosophy?”
September 1999

#37: Julia Annas

University of Arizona
“Should Virtue Make You Happy?”
October 1998

#36: Simon Blackburn

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: Postmodernism and Its Critics”
October 1997

#35: J. Baird Callicott

University of North Texas
“Current Concepts in the Philosophy of Conservation”
February 1997

#34: Michael Bratman

Stanford University
“A Theory of Planning: Problems and Puzzles of Rationality”
Fall 1995

#33: Agnes Heller

New School for Social Research
“Is There an Ethics of Personality?”
Fall 1994

#32: Patricia Smith Churchland

University of California, San Diego
“Looking for the Mind in the Brain: A Neurobiology of Awareness”
Fall 1993

#31: Gordon D. Kaufman

Harvard University, The Divinity School
“Modern Evolutionary Theory and the Reconception of God”
Fall 1992

#30: Bas van Fraassen

Princeton University
“The World of Empiricism”
Spring 1992

#29: John Perry

Stanford University
“What Is the Self?”
1990

#28: Nancy Cartwright

Stanford University
“Scientific Theories: Pictures or Fables?”
1989

#27: Bernard Williams

University of California, Berkeley
“The Place of Deceit in Public Life”
1988

#26: John Searle

University of California, Berkeley
“Minds, Brains, and Computers”
1987

#25: Gregory Vlastos

University of California, Berkeley
“Was Plato a Feminist?”
1986

#24: Herbert Dreyfus

University of California, Berkeley
“From Socrates to Expert Systems: The Limits of Calculative Rationality”
1985

#23: Paul Churchland

University of California, San Diego
“Representation, Computation, Implementation: A New Theory of the Brain”
1985

#22: Nelson Pike

University of California, Irvine
“God as Bridegroom and Mother: A Study of Two Christian Mystical Metaphors”
1984

#21: Joel Feinberg

University of Arizona
“Obscene Words and the Law”
1983

#20: Frederick Olafson

University of California, San Diego
“Philosophy and Humanistic Education”
1982

#19: Herbert Fingarette

University of California, Santa Barbara
“Insanity and Other Mental Disability Defenses in Criminal Law”
1981

#18: John Hick

Birmingham University (UK) and Claremont Grad School
“God Has Many Names”
1980

#17: Alison Jaggar

University of Cincinnati
“Prostitution”
1979

#16: Kai Nielsen

University of Calgary
“Is It as Irrational to Believe in God as It Is to Believe in the Easter Bunny?”
1978

#15: K. T. Fann

York University (Canada)
“The Political Philosophy of Mao Tse-Tung”
1977

#14: J. O. Urmson, Henry Waldgrave Stuart

Stanford University
“What Is Philosophy?”
1976

#13: Karl Potter

University of Washington
“The Background of Skepticism—East and West”
1975

#12: Richard Wasserstrom

University of California, Los Angeles
“Sexual Deviance and the Law”
1974

#11: Donald Brown

University of British Columbia
“Moral Law and Immoral Law”
1973

#10: Jonathan Bennett

University of British Columbia
“The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn”
1972

#9: Terence Penelhum

University of Calgary
“Being Unable to Prove the Existence of God”
1971

#8: Wallace Matson

University of California, Berkeley
“How Identical Are Mind and Brain?”
1969

#7: Morris Weitz

Ohio State University
“The Concept of Style in Art History”
1968

#6: John Wisdom

Cambridge University
“Eternal Life”
1967

#5: Huston Smith

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“The Nature of Man: Some Recent Evidence from Science”
1966

#4: A.I. Melden

University of California, Irvine
“Philosophy and the Understanding of Human Fact”
1966

#3: D. F. Pears

“Oxford Wittgenstein’s Critique of Private Language”
1965

#2: Richard McKeon

University of Chicago
“Liberty: The Interplay of Philosophy and History”
1963

#1: Antony Flew

North Staffordshire
“Miracles”
1961