Professor Kozlowski Lectures

Hooray! It's finally time to actually read and discuss the Bible! But only a little bit, since the first three chapters of Genesis apparently warrant an entire two-and-a-half-hour discussion all by t…

But didn't we introduce the Pentateuch LAST WEEK? Nope. Old Testament "Introduction" is a formal term encompassing all of the scholarship surrounding authorship, provenance, textual criticism & histo…

Professor Kozlowski kicks off his discussion of the Pentateuch with a rousing discussion of How to Read! Not joking. It's Hermeneutics time, folks. Time to talk about How to Read the Bible, and just…

In this rapid-fire explanation and conclusion to the informal research notes series, Professor Kozlowski discusses the newly-finalized reading list for his World Wisdom Traditions class: what texts a…

Professor Kozlowski continues his study of Hindu Philosophy in Radhakrishnan's Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy by studying the schools of interpretation and commentary springing from the Sutras of th…

Professor Kozlowski pivots from researching and discussing Native American philosophy to Hindu philosophy in this informal discussion. Here he'll discuss: 1. The differences and difficulties in resea…

Professor Kozlowski wraps up his discussion of Native American philosophy with a lightning round of books he's skimmed, partially-read, or hopes to read in the future, including:

• Erdoes and Ortiz -…

Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony was highly recommended by Cordova in her previously-discussed book on Native American philosophy, How it Is. Today, Professor Kozlowski discusses the book at some lengt…

American Indian Thought (edited by Anne Waters) is perhaps the primary sourcebook for Native American Philosophy today, but it's a strange, discordant book without a clear guiding structure or organi…

Having decided to spend the summer researching (rather than trying to produce polished lectures), Professor Kozlowski begins to report his research in this first informal "notes" lecture on V. F. Cor…

Professor Kozlowski concludes (perhaps prematurely) his discussion of the Ethics of Literature by delivering a broad-strokes summary of Wayne C. Booth's The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction, alo…

There are few matters in art criticism (and life) closer to Professor Kozlowski's heart than the mental/spiritual war against capital-N Nihilism - retaining hope in the face of despair, remaining pos…

Professor Kozlowski discusses the first half of John Gardner's On Moral Fiction: "Premises on Art and Morality", where we'll identify some of the current philosophical ideas undermining the possibili…

Professor Kozlowski interprets Derrida's "This Strange Institution Called Literature" according to his own idea of Derrida's philosophical program, perhaps against the "stable" interpretation propaga…

Professor Kozlowski concludes his discussion of Ayn Rand's The Romantic Manifesto by examining Rand's confused description of Romanticism, her curious application of Romantic ideals to popular, comme…

Professor Kozlowski embarks on his discussion of Ayn Rand's The Romantic Manifesto with an examination of Ayn Rand's controversial legacy, philosophy, and career, before moving on to discuss her phil…

Professor Kozlowski returns to Sartre's What is Literature? to address Sartre's discussion of the situation of the writer in 1947, and expand on his observations there to discuss how that situation -…

Professor Kozlowski examines Sartre's phenomenological/aesthetic treatise: What is Literature? Along the way, he'll address issues of artistic commercialization, the role of art and literature in cla…

Professor Kozlowski takes on C. S. Lewis' An Experiment in Criticism to examine the ethical responsibilities of the audience to a work of art or literature, and to discuss how the world of criticism …

Professor Kozlowski wrestles with one of the thorniest issues in the discussion of literature ethics: how do we reckon with bad people who make great art?  Jumping off from Maritain's The Responsibil…