Genealogies of Modernity Episode 8: The Enemy of Morality Is Not Modernity, It’s Me
Épisode 8
mercredi 20 décembre 2023 • Durée 44:19
The great English essayist and linguist Samuel Johnson was writing during the Enlightenment – the period some historians identify as the beginning of the modern age. American author and philosopher David Foster Wallace worked more than two centuries later, in the “post-modern” style. But these two writers shared a common problem: once modernity fractured society’s sense of shared moral norms, how could you write persuasively about morality? This episode looks at how Johnson and Wallace attempted to solve this problem; what struggles plagued their solutions; and why our modern, pluralistic landscape makes their work more valuable than ever.
Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Kirsten Hall Herlin
Featured Scholars:
Walter Jackson Bate (1918-1999), Professor of English, Harvard University
Matt Bucher, Managing Editor, The Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies
Jack Lynch, Professor of English, Rutgers University
D. T. Max, Staff Writer, The New Yorker
Special thanks: Dutton Kearney
For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.
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Genealogies of Modernity Episode 7: A Genealogy of Gun Violence
Épisode 7
mercredi 13 décembre 2023 • Durée 51:20
The problem of gun violence is as old as guns themselves. According to historian Priya Satia, America’s present epidemic of gun violence has its roots in the industrial revolution. Satia tells the story of British gun-maker Samuel Galton, Jr., who was called to task by his Quaker community for manufacturing rifles. As a professed pacifist, Galton had to wrestle with the large-scale uses to which his weapons were put. So where do we look for answers about how to regulate guns? Some claim the answer has to lie in the past, in the nation’s founding documents. Others argue that novel technologies demand novel solutions. Solving the problem of gun violence may be a case where we need to make a strong modernity claim.
Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Christopher Nygren, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh
Featured Scholars:
Catherine Fletcher, Professor of History, Manchester Metropolitan University
Priya Satia, Professor of History, Stanford University
Special thanks: James DeMasi, Chloé Hogg, Jonathan Lyonhart, Pernille Røge, Jennifer Waldron, Catherine Yanko.
For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.
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Illuminations Episode 8: Watching Heaven
mardi 16 mai 2023 • Durée 30:42
The story of Galileo has long been cited as evidence the Catholic Church is inherently opposed to scientific research. But in fact, astronomy has been built into the history of the Catholic Church – sometimes built literally into the churches themselves.
Guests
Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory
Ann Blair, Harvard Professor of History
John Heilbron, Historian of Science Emeritus, University of Berkeley
Stephen Barr, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Delaware
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Illuminations Episode 7: Mirrors of Morality
mercredi 19 avril 2023 • Durée 27:46
Scientific origin stories promise to tell us who we really are. But that deepest question of human existence can never fully be answered by science.
Guests
Erika Milam, Princeton University
Cecilia Heyes, Oxford University
This episode was produced by Simon Brown and Maria Devlin McNair.
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Illuminations Episode 6: Manifest Mars
lundi 20 mars 2023 • Durée 36:13
A sense of divine destiny drove Americans to expand West. A similar spirit is behind the modern quest to conquer space.
Guests
Lois Rosson, Bergruenn Institute (Los Angeles)
Catherine Newell, University of Miami
Joni Kinsey, University of Iowa
Episode produced by Liya Rechtman.
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Illuminations Episode 5: Moveable Feasts
jeudi 16 mars 2023 • Durée 30:36
God, we know, is outside space and time. But the need to date one faith’s most sacred feast drove a cutting-edge technological quest to accurately locate ourselves in time.
Guests
Simon Brown
Philipp Nothaft
Robert Poole
Producers
Simon Brown
Maria Devlin McNair
Voice Talent
Blair Hodges
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Illuminations Episode 4: Quantum Buddhism
mercredi 15 mars 2023 • Durée 26:09
What’s the spiritual significance of quantum mechanics? One answer comes from the Dalai Lama - a surprising but genuine lover of scientific investigation.
Guests
Jose Perillan - Associate Professor of Physics and Science, Technology and Society and the Pauline Newman Director of Science, Technology, and Society at Vassar College
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Illuminations Episode 3: Divine Technology
Épisode 72
mardi 14 mars 2023 • Durée 16:47
It’s common to feel that technology removes the magic of the world, but Hindu worshippers in Bangalore have shown that it's all in the approach.
Guest
Tulasi Srinivas, associate professor of anthropology at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College. Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Indian Sociological Society. Author of Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism, among other books.
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Illuminations Episode 2: Beyond Belief
Épisode 71
lundi 13 mars 2023 • Durée 25:03
Do scientists ever reject science? Research data on the controversial topic of extraterrestrial life has met with resistance from some in the scientific community and openness from communities of faith.
Guests
Avi Loeb, professor of astrophysics and cosmology at Harvard University, where he serves as the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science. Author of Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.
Kate Dorsch, associate director of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania .
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), longtime U.S. Senator (1987-2017) from the state of Nevada and former Senate Majority Leader (2007-2015. *The Senator died in December 2021.
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Illuminations Episode 1: Experimental Methods
Épisode 70
dimanche 12 mars 2023 • Durée 35:58
Have faith and science always been enemies? The story of Robert Hooke, a revolutionary working in the Scientific Revolution, exemplifies the ways in which Christianity has actually provoked scientific inquiry.
Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.
Patricia Fara, director of studies and affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s Department of the History and Philosophy of Science.
Jim Bennett, Keeper Emeritus at the Science Museum, London and professor emeritus of the history of science, University of Oxford.
Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory and president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Stephen Barr, professor emeritus at the University of Delaware’s department of physics and astronomy.
This episode was produced by Rosalind Rei and Maria Devlin McNair.
Illuminations is supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
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