The year’s lecturers were announced in the spring, and philosopher John Searle will be the first to present.
The details of Searle’s lectures were announced Tuesday in a press release.
His lectures “Consciousness as a Problem in Philosophy and Neurobiology” and “The Logical Structure of Human Civilization” will be from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Sep. 9 and 11 at Presidents Hall in Franklin Hall.
Indermohan Virk, executive director of the William T. Patten Foundation, said Patten lecturers are selected for their stature in their fields and their ability to appeal to a wider audience.
“While many are indeed specialists in their field, we also want to pick folks who are going to have the widest appeal and their work sort of transcends disciplinary boundaries or the boundaries of their narrow field,” she said.
Virk said Patten lecturers are selected by a committee of faculty members and a representative from the IU Student Association and the IU Graduate and Professional Student Organization.
The committee receives nominations from IU faculty and reviews them, selecting typically three a year.
As part of the nomination form, faculty must confirm that the speaker they are nominating is willing to commit to being a Patten lecturer.
“It’s a week long commitment, so not everyone is willing to do that,” Virk said.
During a Patten lecturer’s time at IU, he or she gives two lectures, shares a meal with the Cox Scholars, Hutton Honors College students and Wells Scholars.
The other events vary by speaker, Virk said.
Searle will be meeting with philosophy students.
Virk said Searle was selected for not only being a renowned philosopher but also for affecting the greater intellectual landscape.
“It’s not just philosophers who read the work of John Searle,” she said. “It’s linguists. It’s cognitive scientists. It’s informatics majors.”
Searles is the William S. and Marion Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California-Berkeley, and, recently, his research of language has pushed him to study social philosophy, according to the press release.
“I have high expectations of him, but I have high expectations of every Patten lecturer,” she said.
The other two lecturers this year will be author Amitav Ghosh and Naomi Oreskes, philosopher of science, professor of the history of science, and Harvard University earth and planetary sciences affiliated professor.
Oreskes will speak from 7:30 to 9 p.m. March 9 and 11 in Presidents Hall.
Ghosh will speak from 7:30 to 9 p.m. April 7 and 9 with the location yet to be ?determined.
The titles of Oreskes’ and Ghosh’s lectures have not yet been announced.
Virk said she hopes Patten lectures are intellectually stimulating to students.
In her five years as director of the Patten foundation, Virk said she has never missed a Patten lecture.
“If someone were to wander into a Patten lecture, my hope would be that he or she would leave feeling pretty inspired,” she said. “And having attended all of these lectures in my time, I can say I’ve always just left dazzled.”
