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Public Lecture by Thomas Carlson, "Love as Fundamental Mood of Philosophy," Thursday, Nov. 21 at 4:30 p.m.

November 21, 2013

4:30 PM - 6:00 PM

Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library

Sharon Kirk

In Northen Auditorium

This talk explores both the understanding of human love and temporal experience that Saint Augustine develops in his Confessions (especially Book XI) and the role that this Augustinian approach to love's temporality may have played in shaping Martin Heidegger's influential philosophical project in the 20th century.

Thanks to the 2012 publication of notes and transcripts from Heidegger's 1930-31 seminar on the question of time in Augustine, we can now see more fully--and contrary to common criticisms of Heidegger--that love was for Heidegger a "fundamental mood" of philosophical questioning. This point where Heidegger inherits Augustine most deeply, the talk argues, is also a point at which Heidegger departs from Augustine most sharply--by demanding we accept, as Augustine could not, the mortal condition of love's temporality.