Past Lecture Series

Sean A. Valles — The Ethical and Public Health Implications of Mass Incarceration and Housing (In)Security

2023

• "Rethinking Prisons, Policing, and Public Health after Fifty Years of Mass Incarceration"
• "Pandemic-Era Eviction Bans Were a Step Toward Recognizing Homes as a Basic Health Need"

Myisha Cherry – Racialized Forgiveness

2021

• "The Moral Psychology of Anger"
• "Unmuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice"
  
  

Quayshawn Spencer – The Metaphysical Problem in Race Theory

2020

• "A When Population Genetics Meets the Metaphysics of Race"
• "A Radical Solution to the Race Problem"

Shannon Vallor – Humanizing Machines: AI, Ethics and the Future

2018

• "Looking in the AI Mirror"
• "How to Cultivate Humane Machines (and People)"
  
  

Paul B. Thompson – Probing Future Foods

2017

• "Four Archetypes for Future Food Systems"
• "Social Amplification of Risk: The Ethical Questions"
  
  

Philip Pettit – Corporate Realities and Democratic Ideals

2016

• "Holding Corporate Bodies Responsible"
• "Granting Corporate Bodies Rights"
  
  

Nick Bostrom – Technology and the Future

2015

• “Technology Strategy and Existential Risks”
• “Superintelligence”
  
  

Linda Zagzebski – God’s Knowledge and Ours

2014

• “Omnisubjectivity: the Subjectivity of God”
• “Knowing God: a Defense of Religious Authority”
  
  

Philip Clayton – Between ‘Intelligent Design’ and the New Atheism: Science and Religion at the Crossroads

2013

• “Beyond the Religion Wars: From Reduction to Reenchantment”
• “The New Sciences of Emergent Complexity: Evolving Religion in an Evolving World”
  
  

David Chalmers – From The Matrix to the Singularity

2010

• “The Matrix as Metaphysics”
• “The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis”
  
  

Gregory Pence – Biotechnology: Friend or Foe?

2009

• “Stem Cells, Little Persons, and Scientific Research”
• “Organic or Genetically Modified Food – Which Is Safer?”
  
  

Andrew Newburg – Why God Won’t Go Away

2008

• “Why God Won’t Go Away”
• “Why We Believe What We Believe”
  
  

David Holtzman – Privacy, Technology and Identity

2007

• “Privacy Lost: How Technology Affects Privacy”
• “Online Identities: @ttribution, not Retribution”

 

Sandra Steingraber – Contaminated Without Consent

2006

• “Contaminated Without Consent: How Pollutants in Air, Food and Water Violate Human Rights”
• “The Precautionary Principle: Science or anti-Science?”
  
  

Brian Greene – The Fabric of the Cosmos

2005

Rupert Sheldrake – The Extended Mind

2004

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

2003

• “The Creative Person and the Creative Context”
• “Flow and the Quality of Life”
  
  

Nancey Murphy – Whatever Happened to the Soul?

2002

 

David Baltimore – Stretching Science

2001

 

 

Paul Davies – Did Life Come From Mars?

2000

 

 

 

Katherine Hayles – Chaos Meets Narrative

1998

 

Stephen Toulmin – Rethinking the Methods of the Human Sciences

1997

• “Alternative Visions of Theory in the Human Sciences”
• “Economic and Social Practice in its Cultural Situation”
  
  

 

Arthur Caplan – Medical Ethics and Health Care Policies  

1996

• “Making Babies: Ethical Issues Raised by New Reproductive Technologies”
• “Sinners, Saints and Health Care: What role should personal responsibility play in the rationing of health care resources?”
  
  

 

Daniel J. Kevles – Genetics and Social Policies

1995

• “The Human Genome Project”
• “Genetics, Race and IQ”
  
  

 

John Searle – Cognition, Cognitive Science and Consciousness

1994

• “Cognition and Cognitive Science”
• “The Problem of Consciousness”
  
  

 

E.C. Krupp – Beyond the Blue Horizon

1993

• “Archaeoastronomy and the Roots of Science”
• “Climbing the Cosmic Mountain”
  
  

 

Stephanie Mills – The Path to Ecological Restoration

1992

• “Healing a Damaged Land”
• “Bioregionalism: Reinstating a Culture of Place”
  
  

 

David Ray Griffin – The Reenchantment of Science

1991

• “Modern Science and Disenchantment”
• “Postmodern Science and Reenchantment”
  
  

 

Jonathan Miller – Humor and Humors 

1990

• “Humor and Comedy”
• “The Afterlife of Plays”
  
  

 

Michelle Taigue – Beyond Consciousness: The Magic of Native American Myths

1989

• “Unveiling the Invisible”
• “Returning to Beginnings”
• “Vehicles of Wisdom”
• “Recovery of the Sacred”
  
  

 

Jacob Needleman

1988

• “The Seeker in A Pathless Land”
• “The Scientist as Seeker”
• “The Seeker in Ourselves”
  
  

 

James Burke – The Day the Universe Changed

1987

• “Mechanisms of Change: Do Lemons Whistle”
• “Goodbye, Descartes: Information and Change”
  
  

 

 

1985

• “Black Holes and Exploding Galaxies”
• “The Physics of the Early Universe"
• “The Origin and Complexity of the Universe”