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
The Lectureship
The Frank Fraser Potter Memorial Lectureship was initiated shortly after his death in 1959 by an anonymous gift from a former student.
This generous donation supported the initial lecture, given in 1961 by Antony Flew of Oxford University, as well as several succeeding addresses by equally outstanding philosophers.
The Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, forerunner to the College of Liberal Arts (now the College of Arts and Sciences), lent support on several occasions, and the lectureship is currently sustained by an endowment accumulated over the years with donations by the friends and colleagues of the Potters.