Title: Pragmatism and Genealogy
Lecturer: Wayne Proudfoot (Professor of Religion, Columbia University)
Chairperson: WANG Yinli (Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, East China Normal University)
Date: 1 pm, May 31st, 2017 (Wednesday)
Venue: Room 5103, Building of School of Humanities, Minhang Campus, ECNU
Sponsor: Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, ECNU
Abstract of the Lecture:
American pragmatism and continental philosophy since Immanuel Kant have a lot in common and much to offer one another. I will look again at James’s Varieties and his lectures on Pragmatism. The pragmatic emphasis on genuine inquiry and the critical reflection on self and society in German idealism can benefit each other. Peirce, James, and John Dewey’s reflections on the social self and on forms of self-deception will be reexamined, by careful attention to Friedrich Nietzsche’s genealogical method and his critical historical and social examination of Christian concepts and practices.
Brief Introduction of the Lecturer:
Wayne Proudfoot (B.S., Yale, 1961; B.D., Harvard 1965; Th.M., Harvard,1966; Ph.D., Harvard, 1972) is Professor of Religion and an affiliated member of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University. His research interests include contemporary philosophy of religion, the ideas of religious experience and mysticism, classical and contemporary pragmatism, and modern Protestant thought. Among his publications are God and the Self, Religious Experience. His current work is on Pragmatism, Genealogy and Naturalism in American religious thought.