September 27, 2006
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417
AMHERST, Mass.—John Perry, the Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, will give the second annual Amherst Lecture in Philosophy, titled “‘Borges and I’ and ‘I’,” at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19, in the Cole Assembly Room in Converse Hall at Amherst College. The Amherst Lecture in Philosophy invites a distinguished philosopher each year to Amherst College. All lectures, along with supplemental materials, will be freely available through a fully archived, catalogued and searchable publication on the ALP Website. The Amherst Lecture in Philosophy is supported by the Forry and Micken Fund in Philosophy and Science, and is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
John Perry has made scholarly contributions in logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics and philosophy of mind, yet may be best known for writing that reaches a wider audience, such as his humorous 1995 online essay, “Structured Procrastination.” Since 2005, Perry has hosted, with Kenneth Taylor, “Philosophy Talk,” a radio program that “questions everything... except your intelligence.” In A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (1978), Perry dealt with problems in the theory of personal identity in the form of a dialogue between a terminally ill university professor and two friends.
With a B.A. in philosophy from Doane College and a Ph.D. degree in philosophy from Cornell University, Perry was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize in philosophy in 1999. He is also a participant in the Center for the Study of Language and Information, an independent research center.
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