April 4, 2023
History doctoral student to lead online event starting April 12
Bryant Macfarlane, doctoral student in history, will lead an online four-meeting short series on understanding classical and more modern theories on individual and social motivation. These lecture and discussion sessions will run from 7-8:30 p.m. April 12, April 19, April 26 and May 3.
Macfarlane, a retired soldier and museum curator, is one of the founders of the Maurin Academy, a nonprofit organization.
In each session, Macfarlane will discuss some of the ways others have confronted conceptions of beauty and our experience with the world that surrounds us all. A Q&A and discussion will follow the sessions. Register for the event on Eventbrite.
Macfarlane will discuss the elusive concept of "the sublime" for thinkers like Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant and David Nye, focus in on the modern technological sublime and discuss how this concept relates to modern ideology-building and propaganda.
"In our pursuit of the extraordinary experience of the sublime, has humanity stumbled into the trap of being manipulated by our own ability and need to create and re-create the sublime experience in a modern, high-tech world where nature and God are not good enough?" Macfarlane said. "Perhaps by confronting the conceptions of beauty, we can learn more about ourselves and the world in which we live today."
