Fw: University Scholar - William Mann - Correction

-Benjamin Littenberg

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From: UVM Faculty
To: UVMFACULTY@LIST.UVM.EDU
Sent: Wed Feb 03 13:06:19 2010
Subject: University Scholar - William Mann - Correction

UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR SEMINAR

Presented by

William E. Mann, PhD
Marsh Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy

Dramas of Disaster and Dreams of Dalliance

Oedipus, Antigone, King Lear, Anna Karenina, Floria Tosca, and Willy Loman have two properties in common: their fates have inspired feelings of anxiety and sorrow among their audiences, and none of them ever existed. Yet knowledge of their nonexistence does not seem to lessen the emotions felt by members of those audiences. How can what we know to be mere fictions nonetheless affect us?  This is one component of the paradox of tragedy: There are two other components that are even more central to the paradox. But you'll have to come to the lecture to find out what they are.

The first person to express puzzlement about the paradox is Augustine (354-430). It is surprising, then, that he has no interest in resolving it. I'll offer some speculation about his lack of interest. The paradox has not gone away. I'll discuss briefly one contemporary attempt to resolve it, an attempt that has some bearing on a second case of puzzlement for Augustine.

The second case is this: Augustine takes seriously the possibility that people can do something morally wrong in a dream – not merely that they dream of wrongdoing, but that they do something wrong while dreaming. He worries, moreover, that he is one of those people. I'll suggest that given various philosophical doctrines to which he is committed, he has reason to worry.

It may have already occurred to you that there are analogies – but also disanalogies – between dramas and dreams. And so we will return to the paradox of tragedy to see what light it may have to shed on Augustine's dream problem.

Homework assignment: I'll be using Puccini's Tosca as an example, and referring explicitly to

Scarpia's aria, Va Tosca. Check out Ruggero Raimondi's version of the aria, which you can find by googling Va Tosca.

4:00 PM, Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building

The University Scholar Awards Program annually recognizes distinguished faculty members for sustained excellence in research and scholarly activities.  The Scholars are selected by a panel of distinguished faculty, based upon nominations submitted by UVM colleagues.

Refreshments at 3:45 and after the Seminar Sponsored by the Graduate College