Schemel Evening Courses: Spring 2023

Course Fees for Non-Members are $75 per individual * Couple $125


Down These Mean Streets: An Ethics of Hardboiled, Noir Fiction

DATES: Mondays, February 6, 13, 20, 27, & March 6, 13                  
TIME:  6:00 to 7:15 p.m.
LOCATION: Weinberg Memorial Library, Room 305 

COURSE DESCRIPTION: 

The hardboiled novel, whether by writers like Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler or in its more contemporary form in Walter Mosley, Dennis Lehane, or James Ellroy isn't just about detectives and femmes fatales. Instead, in the course of plots that involve murder and double-crossing, it's also a space of applied ethics. It's born in the space that Hemingway created when he contemplated how best to act in a universe that no longer seemed to have a moral center, and it's matured into a genre that - at its best - calls on us to ask how we develop the codes that guide us in our difficult choices. In this class, we will read a selection of stories and novels - looking sometimes at the films they inspired - from the earliest examples onward. 

Joseph Kraus, Ph.D., Professor, Department of English & Theatre, The University of Scranton  


Philosophy East and West

DATES: Wednesdays, March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, & April 5                  
TIME:  6:00 to 7:15 p.m.
LOCATION: Weinberg Memorial Library, Room 305

COURSE DESCRIPTION: 

Why do philosophy comparatively and cross-culturally? What are the benefits of thinking outside the box? In this seminar, we will briefly review essential theses of some influential Western thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Kant and then thematically compare them to Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism on topics of self-and-other, virtue, government, gender, and ecology. The purpose of this comparative approach is to broaden our mental horizon by considering alternative conceptual frameworks that can be useful resources for treatment of contemporary social, political, and environmental problems. 

Ann A. Pang-White, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Philosophy, and Director, Asian Studies Program, The University of Scranton 


The Anatomy of Contemporary Conservatism in the US

DATES: Thursdays, February 2, 9, 16, 23, & March 2, 9
TIME:  6:00 to 7:15 p.m.
LOCATION: Weinberg Memorial Library, Room 305

COURSE DESCRIPTION: 

The course will explore the different strands of conservatism that have emerged in recent years, from George Will’s defense of classic liberalism to Yoram Hazozy’s turn to nationalism, and ask to what extent, if at all, these different strands are compatible with each other.

Matthew Meyer, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Philosophy, The University of Scranton


For more information and to register, contact: 

Brooke Leonard
Schemel Forum Assistant
570.941.4740
brooke.leonard@scranton.edu
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