Ralston College presents a two-part series of lectures by Alan Charles Kors on Voltaire's great work 'The Philosophical Letters.' Profoundly impressed by the English scientific and philosophical revolutions of the seventeenth century, Voltaire sought to explain and to popularize new British thinking to his French readers. He argued that sound and innovative thinkers were more important to humanity than its political or military heroes and that preferring the philosophers of one’s native land over those of another nation was a barrier to the advance of truth and knowledge. In this first lecture, Professor Kors explores the reasons for Voltaire's fascination with the English empirical tradition, which is exemplified by Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Isaac Newton. This lecture and discussion were recorded with a live online audience on April 21st, 2022.
Ep. 30 - From the Cave of Pythagoras: A Lecture and Discussion with Douglas Hedley
Ep. 29 - Marie Kawthar Daouda: Baudelaire and the Creation of the Poetic Self
Ep. 28 - Arif Ahmed on David Hume’s Disturbing Conception of the Self
Ep. 27 - Alan Charles Kors: Voltaire’s ‘Philosophical Letters,’ Part II
Ep. 25 - Theodore Dalrymple on H. G. Wells's 'The Time Machine'
Ep. 24 - Vernon Smith: Self-Interest Reconsidered
Ep. 23 - Iain McGilchrist: The Coincidence of Opposites
Ep. 22 - Marwa Al-Sabouni: Architecture as a Matter of Life or Death
Ep. 21 - Alexander Stoddart: Culture as Communion with the Dead
Ep. 20 - On Becoming Alan Dershowitz
Ep. 19 - Victor Davis Hanson on Who Killed Homer
Ep. 18 – Andrew Doyle on Free Speech and Why It Matters
Ep. 17 - Alexander Stoddart: A Conversation in His Studio
Ep. 16 - Harry Lewis and Stephen Blackwood: What's an Education For?
Ep. 15 – Theodore Dalrymple on Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons”
Ep. 14 - The Morality of Satire: Andrew Doyle and Stephen Blackwood
Ep. 13 - On the Freedom of Thought and Nature: Freeman Dyson and Stephen Blackwood
Ep. 12 - A Discussion of 'Ivan Ilyich:' Donna Orwin and Stephen Blackwood
Ep. 11 - Tolstoy: The Death of Ivan Ilyich
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