ACMS Speaker Series
The Cult of the Dead and
The Ever Sanative Conscience
| | Speaker: Michael Forest
5:30 PM, Tuesday - May 19th, 2015, American Corner, Ulaanbaatar public library
American culture has developed a unique tension between its past and its present. This appears in the 19th Century as Ralph Waldo Emerson advocated an abandonment of the past as a strategy to sever the philosophical and literary ties with Europe, and to engage in an unmediated form of religious perception. This approach to experience, and to philosophy, has given Americans a license to enact the present moment as if it were unprecedented and original. On the other hand, Josiah Royce articulated a deep possession of the past as part of the identity of the present moment – we are formed by our ancestors, both psychologically and philosophically – and also an obligation to preserve and enshrine the past in a cult of the dead. This presentation guides the audience through some of the key texts of these thinkers and brings up the question for discussion: what relationship or obligations do we have to the past in philosophy or in our lives?
| | | | About the Author: Michael Forest
Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, USA. For the 2014-2015 academic year, he is Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer at Beijing Foreign Studies University. He was also a Fulbright Scholar in 207-2008 at Xiamen University in Fujian, PR China. His areas of specialization have centered on the North American Philosophical Tradition, including articles on figures in the areas of pragmatism such as Charles Peirce, William James, Josiah Royce, John Dewey, and Richard Rorty, and figures in the area of transcendentalism such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. He also has published on the Canadian philosopher Bernard Lonergan, especially on methodology and cognition. His recent interests have focused on connecting those philosophical traditions to popular culture in film and music.
| | For more information visit the ACMS website www.mongoliacenter.org
Thank you to the American Corner and the Natsagdorj Library for sponsoring this event.
THESE LECTURES ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
The American Center for Mongolian Studies is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting scholarship in Mongolian Studies.
ACMS, Ulaanbaatar Public Library - East entrance, Seoul street-7, Sukhbaatar District
Phone: (976) 7711-0486, e-mail: info@mongoliacenter.org
website: http://www.mongoliacenter.org
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