Sydney Ideas Key Thinkers Series Please note the previously advertised lecture on Freud, scheduled for 13 October, has been cancelled.
Details of the last two lectures in the series are below. 20 October EMIL KRAEPELIN AND THE ORIGINS OF MODERN PSYCHIATRY Dr Dominic Murphy, History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Science One hundred years ago, Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) was the most influential psychiatrist in the world, revered as the man whose system of classification put the study of mental illness on firm scientific foundations. We owe to Kraepelin the distinction between schizophrenia (which he called premature dementia) and manic-depressive illness. Kraepelin saw mental illnesses as distinct processes with characteristic outcomes, ultimately rooted in the biology of the brain. His ideas were eclipsed by psychoanalysis, but have returned to serve as the basis of contemporary psychiatry, which is often called neo-Kraepelinian. This lecture will explain Kraepelin's approach to psychiatry and his influence on modern psychiatry, and discuss why some contemporary theorists think that his influence is keeping psychiatry on the wrong track. 27 October HERODOTUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF HISTORY Dr Julia Kindt, Classics and Ancient History, Faculty of Arts Towards the end of the fifth century BC Herodotus wrote his Histories, a work in which he sought to explain why the Greeks had won the Persian Wars. The Histories are widely credited for pioneering the Western tradition of historiography - already Cicero called Herodotus "the father of history". But what is original about Herodotus' Histories is not so much what he wrote about - after all Homer had already focused his narrative on a great war - but how he wrote about it. Herodotus blended history and literature, political, cultural, and military history, ethnography, geography, zoology, linguistics and religion (to name just a few interests of this highly versatile author) in a unique and sophisticated fashion. In bringing these different strands of knowledge together Herodotus' Histories reflect the cultural and intellectual milieu of ancient Greece during the late fifth century BC when different areas of human life became subject to critical inquiry. Venue: Lecture Theatre 101, Sydney Law School Building, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown Campus Time: 6.00pm to 7.30 (includes Q & A) Bookings: Free events, no registration or booking required MEREDITH HALL | Program Manager Sydney Ideas | Alumni and Community Engagement THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Rm K6.02, The Quadrangle A14 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 T 02 9351 1935 | M 0403 367 842 E [email protected] | W http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas _______________________________________________ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 945 subscribers now served. To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
