Senior College

Session 1

Darwin, Marx, and Freud

Tuesdays, February 5, 12, 19, 26
Time: 2:30-4:20 p.m.
Where: Iowa Memorial Union, Indiana Room
Registration deadline: January 22
Class limit: 70

Almost unquestionably, the three most influential thinkers on human existence of the last two centuries were Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Karl Marx (1818-1883), and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Darwin offers an account of how humans came to be, Marx of the forms of human social life, and Freud of the complexities of the individual human mind, each presupposing that the methods of science can profitably be applied to the understanding of human existence. Following an introductory session that will include some discussion of the very idea of applying scientific method to human beings, we will spend a session on each of these three great thinkers.

INSTRUCTOR: Laird Addis retired from the University of Iowa in 2004 after 41 years on the faculty of the Department of Philosophy. In a course he taught for many years, "Philosophy and Human Nature," he lectured on Darwin, Marx, and Freud. In his publications on philosophy of mind, philosophy of the social sciences, and other topics, he has written about Marx and Freud and made occasional references to Darwin and evolutionary theory. Professor Addis's books include The Logic of Society: A Philosophical Study (1975), Natural Signs: A Theory of Intentionality (1989), and Of Mind and Music (1999)

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