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Spring 2018
Friday
April 13th
Macalester College
John Davis
Lecture Room
Ruth Stricker Dayton Student Center
6:30 Buffet
7:30 Program
Call for reservations:
651-430-0361
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ThIStle
Friday 6:30 PM
April 13th
Macalester College
John Davis
Lecture Room
Dr. Perry Hacket
What Makes Us Human?
The Institute of Theological &
Interdisciplinary Studies ··ThIStle··
is a registered nonprofit organization dedicated to
the
exploration of knowledge which promotes lifelong spiritual
and intellectual vitality and the enhancement of our human
capacities.
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& BOOKSTORE | CONTINUING
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April 13th 2018:
R.
Alan James
Director's Notes:.
In 1943 Nobel
Physicist Erwin Schrödinger presented lectures at Trinity College in Dublin entitled What Is Life? later published as a book of that title. His
Reflections cited questions raised by fifthcentury BC Democritus (the one who gave us that word “atom” meaning “it cannot be split further,”) the shape of the earth, the nature of living things, growth, illness, healing, reproduction, and immortality.
Schrödinger’s lectures were presented in the midst of WWII, and he, like most
people were in anguish over what is the human race coming to? By this time the story of humanity and the beginnings of creation and life were pondered and studied seriously. What makes us different from a fish, or a bird, or an insect? Do these animals also have a love of life? Do they not know pleasure; or pain? Do they not also have a sense of companionship, hunger?
In the long scheme of existence, do we assume that our species is the final iteration? How can we be further refined? We are not the creatures of 20,000 years ago. Were they our forebears? Might our children become a new species? How?
See this YouTube posting of our visit from John Taylior Gatto:
http://youtube/4KlSD0nanco
Here is a PDF of Emilio DeGrazia's
March 2014 manuscript:
WHY HUMPTY DUMPTY FELL |