Great Barrington - The Seminar Lecture series continues at Simon's Rock College of Bard with a lecture by William Griffith, professor of Philosophy at Bard College. The lecture, which will be held in Kellogg Hall on Monday, October 24 at 7 p.m., will be free and open to the public.
Griffith’s talk will be titled “Nietzsche: Social Scientist? Immoralist. Enemy of Equality.†A professor at Bard College since 1968, Griffith regularly teaches seminars on Wittgenstein, William James, Kant, Nietzsche and Plato. He also teaches introductory courses in Symbolic Logic and Ethical Theory as well as Law and Ethics and Economic Justice.
The Seminar Series will continue on Monday, October 31, with a talk by Simon’s Rock College Dean of Academic Affairs and Faculty in Philosophy Samuel Ruhmkorff. He will give a lecture titled “Socrates, Euthyphro, and Divine Commands.†His talk will take place in the McConnell Theater at 7 p.m.
Ruhmkorff’s areas of specialization are philosophy of science and epistemology. His research examines the nature and strength of scientific evidence, and the foundations of probabilistic belief and inference. He was appointed Dean of Academic Affairs at Simon’s Rock in 2005.
Peter Filkins, faculty member in Literature, will lecture on Dante’s “Intelligible Design,†on Monday, November 14 at 7 p.m., also in the McConnell. Filkins has seen his poetry, criticism and translations appear in many publications, and he has published two books of poems, What She Knew and After Homer. His translation of the complete poems of Ingeborg Bachman, Songs in Flight, was named Outstanding Translation by the American Literary Translators Association. Most recently, in the spring of 2005, he was a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, where he worked on a translation of H.G. Adler’s Eine Reise.
The final Seminar Lecture of the semester will be given by faculty member in Gender Studies and Literature Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez. She will give a lecture titled “Through Outsiders Eyes: Virginia Woolf’s Critique of Patriarchal Capitalist Militarism.†Her talk will be given on Monday, November 28 at 7 p.m. in Kellogg Hall.
Browdy de Hernandez’s areas of scholarship include Latin American women writers, Caribbean literature, ethnic American writers, postcolonial theory and feminist theory. She recently published an anthology titled Women, Writing Resistance in Latin American and the Caribbean, and she has published several articles on the intersection of poetics and politics of various women writers.
The Seminar Lecture Series is part of the First and Second Year Seminar – cornerstones of education at Simon’s Rock College – and offers talks on great texts and ideas. The Seminar Lecture Series supplements courses that first and second year students are required to take: “First Year Seminar: The Examined Life;†and the “Sophomore Seminar: Voices Against the Chorus.â€
“The First Year Seminar: The Examined Life†is a two-semester course that focuses on themes of self-discovery, the relationship of the individual and society, and the nature of values and responsibility. Readings for the course include Sophocles’ Oedipus Cycle, Plato’s The Last Days of Socrates, Dante’s Inferno, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and a wide variety of supplementary works.
“The Sophomore Seminar: Voices Against the Chorus†explores how 19th- and 20th-century thinkers confronted the accepted order of things, how they challenged accepted ideas, and how they constructed radically different conceptions of the world. Readings include Darwin’s The Descent of Man, Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto, Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals, Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, Forster’s A Passage to India, DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk, Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and Kafka’s The Trial.
The public is invited to these evening lectures.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
No Comments
Dalton Day Returns This Saturday
By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass. — The town's popular Dalton Day festival is returning this weekend after a year's hiatus.
The event will kick off this Saturday at 11 a.m. and runs until 4 p.m. in the field in front of the Senior Center.
The community celebration was established in 2023 by the Cultural Council in an effort to increase resident participation at town meetings while also showcasing the area's welcoming, diverse, artistic and sporty atmosphere. In 2024, the event brought together 300 residents.
"The primary mission of Dalton Day is to foster a strong sense of community, build civic pride, and bring residents together through a shared celebration of local culture, music, and food," said Jeannie Ingram, Select Board member and cultural council chair, and Lori Venezia, executive assistant to the town manager.
The event provides an accessible and free platform for "civic education, community bonding, and supporting local businesses, artisans, makers, and culture more broadly," they said.
The festival strengthens the fabric of the town both civically and economically by connecting grassroots organizations with residents, fostering a shared sense of belonging, and providing free, family-friendly entertainment.
It also serves as an opportunity for community members to meet with local officials and a couple of state officials. State Sen. Paul Mark and state Rep. Leigh Davis will be coming from Beacon Hill to speak at the event.
Cassidy Flynn scattered five hits in a complete-game effort in the circle as Lenox upset top-seeded Hoosac Valley, 3-2, in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament. click for more
Brayden Durant struck out seven and walked one in a complete-game effort on the mound Saturday to pitch the Drury baseball team to a 6-0 win over Keefe Tech in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament at Joe Wolfe Field. click for more
Jason Codey struck out 13, walked two and allowed just an infield single as the Generals earned a 7-1 win over Wahconah to claim their third straight regional title. click for more
Gracelyn Wright struck out eight, and Genevieve Lagess went 3-for-5 with four runs batted in as the Hurricanes beat Monson, 17-3, to claim their first Western Mass title in four years. click for more
