Below is the audio recording of Gisela Striker’s John Dewey Lecture, given at the 2019-2020 Eastern Division Meeting. The talk is titled “The Academic Practice of Philosophy (… in Two Countries),” and she uses an account of her German training in juxtaposition to her American experience in order to feature two themes of great relevance to the practice of philosophy. First, in regards to the history of philosophy, she finds a great value in the German practice, in which current philosophical work is more fully situated in the ancient tradition – a grounding by which the value of the fundamental questions is made more clear. Secondly, concerning the modern emphasis on ‘specialization,’ she notes that philosophy should not be viewed in the same way as the empirical sciences, where subsequent work will naturally advance the collective enterprise: instead, it should be seen as the “keeping alive” of the tradition of thought by means of which it attains its proper dignity.
The audio of the address is available here:
Gisela Striker was born and educated in Germany (Dr. phil., University of Goettingen). She taught philosophy at Goettingen from 1971-1986, at Columbia University from 1986 to 1989, and at Harvard since 1989, where she is a member of both the Classics and Philosophy departments. She specializes in ancient philosophy, teaching Plato and Aristotle, as well as earlier and later Greek and Roman authors. She has written mostly on topics in Hellenistic philosophy (Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics – epistemology and ethics) and Aristotelian logic. Striker returned to Harvard in the Fall of 2000 after three years at the University of Cambridge/England.
About this series: The Blog of the APA is pleased to publish the Presidential Addresses and John Dewey Lectures given at the Eastern, Central, and Pacific APA Division Meetings which communicate the ideas and experiences that the renowned philosophers who delivered them felt are most important for people in the field to know. The series starts with the Presidential Address given at the 2017-18 Eastern Division APA Meeting and will continue on a bi-weekly basis. Each speech will be available on the Blog for one month from publication. The Blog wishes to thank the APA leadership and Jeremy Cushing for their support and assistance in making these recordings available.
Emily Rose Ogland is a postgraduate student at the University of Warwick, currently studying the philosophy of literary translation and working on her own translations of current philosophical texts. Follow Emily Rose on Twitter @er_ogland.
