USC Templeton Fellow Update
Owen Flanagan, USC's 2005 Templeton Fellow, is the author of The Really Hard Problem Meaning in a Material World, published in November 2007. Learn more about the book.
Past Lectures
View lectures by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jared Diamond, and read lectures by 2006 Fellow Owen Flanagan. Read more.
About the Images on this Site
The images at the top of each section are from Resonance Fine Art and Eric J. Heller. Prof. Heller, a member of the physics and chemistry departments at Harvard, creates digital art "inspired by a world we cannot directly see; the quantum realm of electrons, atoms, and molecules." Visit his website.
Creativity of Genius : Templeton Lecture Series
The Templeton Lecture Series entitled 'Creativity of Genius', features four lectures by noted experts in a whole gamut of disciplines spanning the Sciences and the Arts, who will provide insights into the phenomenon of human genius, by exploring the life and work of immortal icons whose names have come to epitomize creativity and genius. Download the series flyer
Click on lecture titles to view webcasts of the lectures
Learning from Newton
Martin Krieger
Professor of Planning, University of Southern California
October 15, 2008 Venue: HNB 100 Time: 5:30 pm
The Congeniality of Shakespeare's Genius
Bruce R. Smith
College Distinguished Professor of English, Professor of Theater, University of Southern California
February 25, 2009 Venue: HNB 100 Time: 5:30 pm
Henri Matisse: Armchair Artist or Subtle Subversive?
Carol S. Eliel
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and Curatorial Coordinator of Exhibitions, LACMA
March 11, 2009 Venue: HNB 100 Time: 5:00 pm
Mozart: Genius, Prodigy or Craftsman?
Bruce Brown
Professor of Musicology, University of Southern California
April 29, 2009 Venue: HNB 100 Time: 5:00 pm
Please note : This lecture was originally scheduled for April 8 and has now been rescheduled to April 29.
Becoming Human : Action, Passion and Ultimacy
Michael Arbib, in these lectures combines his scientific work with the philosophical themes he first developed at length with Mary Hesse in The Construction of Reality, their Gifford Lectures in Natural Theology at the University of Edinburgh in 1983. Download the series flyer
Click on lecture titles to view webcasts of the lectures
Passion: From Drives to Emotions and a New Sociality
Motivation and emotion are the motors of action. Comparing the neurobiology of how humans and other primates act upon, produce and communicate emotion, grounds assessment of becoming human
November 4, 2008 Venue: HNB 100 Time: 5:30 pm
Lecture will also be screened live at Ronald Tutor Hall(RTH) Room No. 105
Language and Mirror Neurons: Evolved and Still Evolving
The Mirror System hypothesis grounds or capacity for language in ancient systems for the control and recognition of hand actions, and offers new insights into thought, language and emotion
November 6, 2008 Venue: HNB 100 Time: 5:30 pm
Morality: Primate Trait, Cultural Invention or Given by God?
Must moral systems be rooted in religion and "experiences of ultimacy" or in our primate ancestry or historical adaptations of empathy to the evolving complexity of human societies.
November 11, 2008 Venue: HNB 100 Time: 5:30 pm
Passion, Reason and Creative Activity
To what extent do thinking and language characterize the way brains work? The emotional aspects of visual and embodied metaphors may bring us closer to understanding how passion drives creativity.
November 13, 2008 Venue: HNB 100 Time: 5:30 pm
PLEASE NOTE : The lecture 'Empathy, Morality and Ultimacy', originally scheduled to be delivered on Thursday, 13th November 2008 was delivered on Tuesday, 11th November 2008.
The lecture 'Passion, Reason and Creativity' was delivered on Tuesday, 13th November 2008.
2008 Templeton Fellow : Barbara Maria Stafford
Barbara Maria Stafford, William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, presented a series of lectures during her February 2008 residency at the University of Southern California.
Click on the lecture title to view the lecture.
- 1/28/08, Skeletal Figures: The Emotional Intuition of Form.
- 1/29/08, Intimacy/Hot Entanglement: Meaning in Combinations.
- 1/31/08, Cold Motor Mirroring: Recognition as the Performance of Other Minds 2/4/08, Inner Sky: Cave Vision and the Landscape of Sensory Deprivation
- 2/5/08, The Miscellaneous Subject: Episodic Personhood from Mosaic to Bar Code
- 2/7/08, The Long Conscious Look: Towards a Pedagogy of Attentiveness
