Last week I skipped my first class. This might have been a rather liberating and rebellious act except that it was to attend a colloquium in legal and social philosophy at the school of political science and public policy. I know I know, inexcusably naughty.
Besides the fact that I didn't really know what goes on at colloquiums, I was a bit put off by the rumour that grad students in the school of political science and public policy can actually carry on a decent conversation without resorting to truth tables. However, the presentation was to feature Harvard's Kristine Korsgaard defending an unpublished opus on Kant and Hume, and I happened to be in the process of writing an essay on Kantian duty....this is getting tedious.
The Colloquium was held in the Mock Tort facility at the school of laws. It lasted over three hours. Korsgaard had to listen for at least an hour and a half as Ronald Dworkin, Mike Martin, Jonathan Wolff, and co. summarized and criticized her position. It was rather alarming to see these admittedly formidible academics sitting in the judges' chairs glancing down amusedly at us grad. students (the condemned).
Dworkin aka chief justice was particularly impressive. The day before the colloquium, we had been studying his defense of egalitarian principles Sovereign Virtue and our lecturer had noted that Dworkin rarely responds to critics as he's too busy writing constitutions for fledgling 3rd world democracies. He looked the part in a crisp pin stripe suit, impeccably tailored shirt and silk handerchief. What a rock star.
As for Korsgaard, she smiled the smile of the kingdom of ends, and after an hour and a half of criticism, the final assessment was: "you've defended you thesis admirably, however we're not sure what you're up to."
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1 comment:
I love to imagine being there.
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