March 6: Carlos Fraenkel on the role of philosophy in a culture of debate
On March 6 at 19.00, Prof. Carlos F. Fraenkel from McGill University was present at ECLA of Bard for a lecture based on his forthcoming book "Teaching Plato in Palestine" (Princeton University Press).
Socrates and his Students, Mukhtar al-Hikam wa-Mahasin al-Kalim ('Choice Maxims and Finest Sayings') by Al-Mubashshir (Syria, beginning of 13th century)
Socrates and his Students, Mukhtar al-Hikam wa-Mahasin al-Kalim ('Choice Maxims and Finest Sayings') by Al-Mubashshir (Syria, beginning of 13th century)
The two main questions Prof. Fraenkel grappled with are whether philosophy can help to make tensions that arise from diversity (cultural, religious, and so forth) fruitful for a culture of debate, and, more generally, whether doing philosophy can be useful outside the confines of academia. On both counts, he believes we have reason to be optimistic.
"Teaching Plato in Palestine" is based on five philosophy workshops that Carlos Fraenkel organized between 2006 and 2011: at a Palestinian university in East Jerusalem, at an Islamic university in Indonesia, with members of the Hasidic community in New York, with high school students in Salvador da Bahia (the center of Afro-Brazilian culture), and in a Mohawk First Nations community in Canada. Throughout all these workshops, Prof. Fraenkel noticed that the participants had strong religious or cultural commitments that often clashed with his secular views, which gave him first-hand insight into how deeply divided we are on fundamental moral, religious, and philosophical issues. While many find these disagreements disheartening, Prof. Fraenkel argues that they can be a good thing--if we succeed in transforming them into a culture of debate. And philosophy, he contends, can be helpful to this end.
The five locations were deliberately chosen along various lines of conflict—Islam and the West, Israel and Palestine, Hasidism and urban modernity, Brazil’s race and economic divisions, First Nations and the white man, and so forth. These conflicts give rise to fundamental questions, ranging from moral and political issues to concerns about cultural identity and religion. Here too, philosophy can help to articulate the questions more clearly and to explore or refine answers to them.
Carlos F. Fraenkel is Associate Professor at McGill University in Montréal, jointly appointed in the Departments of Philosophy and Jewish Studies. He works on various issues, spanning ancient philosophy, medieval philosophy (mainly Jewish and Islamic) and early modern philosophy (mainly Spinoza). He also has an interest in political philosophy, in particular in questions related to cultural difference, identity and autonomy.
You can read more about Carlos Fraenkel on his personal website.
