In 1994, the University of Oregon Humanities Center sponsored the inaugural lectures in a program intended to promote intelligent, critical public discourse at the University of Oregon and across the state of Oregon. While the specific focus of the public presentations may vary, each Kritikos Professor shares, in the words of the benefactor: “a commitment to intellectual honesty and freedom . . .”
Whenever possible, the Center has published the annual Kritikos lecture(s) in a volume made available to the public.
The Story of the Soup Cans
by Louis Menand
Menand sketches out the historical context for understanding the emergence of Andy Warhol’s 1962 exhibition of Campbell’s soup cans at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. He places the soup cans in the context of the distinction between the high art of the abstract Expressionists and the “kitsch”art of mass culture.
(University of Oregon Books, 2006; 23 pages)
Cost: $5 plus $3 shipping/handling
Fundamentalisms and the Conflicts in the Middle East
by Milton Viorst
The first of the two lectures addresses the dilemma in which today’s fundamentalist Islamic cultures find themselves, in trying to reconcile their religious, cultural, and political outlook with the demands of modern, post-Enlightenment society.
The second lecture explores the concept of fundamentalism and its historical roots in the religions, which are most prominent in the Middle East: Islam and Judaism.
(University of Oregon Books, 2003; 26 pages)
Cost: $5 plus $3 shipping/handling
Roscoe and Me: The Specific and the Impossible
by William Kennedy
In these two lectures, Kennedy explores the art and craft of writing, and in particular, fiction writing.
(University of Oregon Books, 2003; 39 pages)
Cost: $5 plus $3 shipping/handling
Crime and Public Policy
by James Q. Wilson
In this lecture, Wilson asks three questions: Why does America have so much violent crime? Why has the crime rate decreased? What can be done to keep it down?
(University of Oregon Books, 2001; 19 pages)
Cost: $5 plus $3 shipping/handling
On Biblical Narrative
by Robert Alter
In the first lecture, Alter discusses the Biblical story of David as a probing examination of the realm of politics. In the second lecture he offers an overview of biblical storytelling.
(University of Oregon Books, 2000; 34 pages)
Cost: $5 plus $3 shipping/handling
The Study of Time: Philosophical Truths and Human Consequences by Eva T. H. Brann
In the first lecture, Professor Brann discusses the possible effects of thinking about the nature of time upon our lives, and in the second lecture, she compares two very similar theories of time held by authors far apart in time: Plotinus and Heidegger.
(University of Oregon Books, 1999; 39 pages)
Cost: $5 plus $3 shipping/handling
Democratic Authority at Century’s End
by Jean Bethke Elshtain
This lecture addresses the topics of democratic authority and anarchy.
(University of Oregon Books, 1997; 13 pages)
Cost: $5 plus $3 shipping/handling
Responsible Citizenship: Ancient and Modern
by Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr.
Mansfield discusses responsible citizenship from Aristotle to Hannah Arendt.
(University of Oregon Books, 1994; 31 pages)
Cost: $5 plus $3 shipping/handling
