29 October at Yudowitz, Wolfson Medical School
Free buffet afterwards
Lecture: Precarious humility. Word crises and world crises in dialogue
Jochen Schmidt, Professor for Systematic Theology, Mainz University
“Humility” is a crisis word in two senses. When reflecting on crises of our times, many call for humility, for instance as an antidote to the polarisation of society or the climate catastrophe. Yet humility is itself a crisis-ridden word. Humility has largely fallen into oblivion, and there are reasons for this that have to do with the problematic, precarious nature of humility itself. This lecture explores the precarity of humility by attending to notions such as humblebragging, monkish virtues and arrogant humility to show that reflecting on historical crises of words reveals the relevance of what these words might teach us today.
30 October at Gannochy, Wolfson Medical School
Seminar: Wor(l)d Crises
The seminar will discuss connections between conceptual-historical and contemporary-diagnostic reflections on “crises.” By looking at particular words and examples of crises in our world, participants will explore the premise that reflecting on the crises of words (such as humility) reveals two things: We cannot simply slap our grand words onto the crises that shake our world. And if we really want our words to be fruitful for understanding and tackling our crises, then we must engage with the crises embedded in the histories of these words; we must learn from the crises of our words how conceptual history has abiding significance for thinking about the crises of our time.
Chair:
David Jasper
Panel:
Eva Baillie
Andrew Hass
Heather Walton
Alison Jasper
Jochen Schmidt
Samuel Shearn
Jeremy Smith
