Presented by Prof Harvey Siegle
Professor, Department of Philosophy
Univ. of Miami

Prof Harvey Siegel

In his groundbreaking The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn challenged the common conception of science as a rational, objective, evidence-based activity, and of scientific development as gradual, linear, and progressive. His alternative conception, deeply informed by the history of science, portrays scientific practice as governed by ‘paradigms’ that control scientific practice and perception, but that are periodically overthrown during periods of ‘revolutionary science.’ In this talk I will introduce the main features of Kuhn’s views, illustrate them with examples of several scientific revolutions, and briefly discuss some of the radical philosophical implications of his view.

Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009

Time: 6:30pm – Wine and cheese
7:00pm – Lecture (45min – 1hour)

Where: Atlantic Room (Bayside Pavilion) - Mercy Hospital

Please RSVP– Call Jessica at 305 285 2702

Prof Paul George 
Professor of History
Miami-Dade College

Historian to the Historical Association of Southern Florida

Prof Paul George will discuss the pre-Miami\ SE. Florida., which stretches back nearly 11,000 years. The next topic will be the Miami that followed the railroad’s entry in 1896. The last part of the presentation will be the international city that has emerged in the past 50-60 years

Date:     Thursday, March 19, 2009

Time:    6:30pm – Wine and cheese
             7:00pm – Lecture (45min – 1hour)

 Where:  Atlantic Room (Bayside Pavilion)

 Please RSVP– Call Jessica at 305 285 2702

Petra was recently designated as one of the new wonders of the world. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. UNESCO has described it as “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage.” The Roman author Pliny the Elder identified Petra as a centre of caravan trade. The Biblical references to Petra are not clear but Rekem, its native name, appears in Jewish literature.

This puzzling and marvelous wonder of the world will be discussed by Prof. Dan Graf who is one of the archeologists immersed in the archaelogical work at this site in modern Jordan.”

Prof David Graf

Presented by Prof John Fitzgerald

The Holy Land from the time of Pompey (63 BCE) to the fall of Jerusalem (70 CE), a fascinating but fairly complex period politically, will be discussed.

Where:  Atlantic Room (Bayside Pavilion) - Mercy Hospital

When:   Thursday, Jan 22

Time:    6:30pm – Wine and cheese

             7:00pm – Lecture (45min – 1hour)

Please RSVP– Call Jessica at 305 285 2702

Prof John Fitzgerald

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Department of Religious Studies

Univ. of Miami

Professor Fitzgerald has taught at the University of Miami since 1981. Fitzgerald concentrates on the religions and philosophical schools of the ancient Mediterranean world in the period between Alexander the Great (d. 323 BCE) and Constantine (d. 337 CE). He is particularly interested in Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism, the history and literature of early Christianity, and Hellenistic moral philosophy. His research focuses on the ways in which Jews and Christians interacted with the various segments of Greco-Roman culture and appropriated philosophical materials for religious use.

Prof Dan Pals

Senior Associate Dean College of Arts and Science,
Professor, Department of Religious Studies 
and Department of History
Univ. of Miami

James George Frazer (1854-1941) was a pioneering figure whose wide-ranging researches helped create the modern discipline of anthropology. His fame rests chiefly on The Golden Bough, an extensive study of magic and religion that applied what he called “the comparative method” to beliefs, rites, and everyday practices that he felt were common to classical civilization, European folklore, and surviving primitive cultures around the world. He was also greatly taken with Darwin’s theory of evolution, and introduced into his study a scheme of cultural, or social, evolution that in his view was the natural extension and application of Darwin’s views on animal development to human affairs. Frazer’s wide research and provocative ideas continue to exercise a subtle influence on popular opinion, on academic discussion of such matters as cultural diversity, and on the modern debates over the relationship between science and religion.

Thursday Oct 16
6:30pm - hors d’oeuvre and wine
7:00pm – Lecture (45min – 1hour)
Atlantic Room – Bayside Pavilion
RSVP to Jessica at 305 285 2702

All seminars take place in the Atlantic Room of the Bayside Pavillion at Mercy Hospital Campus, starting at 6:30 p.m. with wine and sandwiches. Speakers present at 7:00 p.m. sharp. The duration of the presentation is 45 minutes to an hour and is followed by a 15 minutes questions and answers exchange.

Some may regard as unpleasant the basic discovery of a cultural crossroads - the fact that others are quite capable of creating ways of living that are entirely different from our own. Such cultural collisions are, however, integral to many of history’s most creative moments.North America’s immigrant history has created some of the specific habits and dreams that shape the Globalized world where we now live. In her illustrated talk, Prof. Gottlieb-Roberts presents selected art works to mirror and evoke some defining moments inNorth America’s socially collaborative history.