Hammond Memorial Lecture: “How to Do Philosophy Right Now” with Dr. James Gilmore

Description

Join Dr. James Gilmore for the Hammond Memorial Lecture with the Jesup Memorial Library on Friday, October 15 at 7 p.m. on Zoom. The Hammond Memorial Lecture, in honor of the late Paul Hammond, brings a speaker for a talk at the Jesup that explores philosophy for a lay audience. Hammond, who grew up on MDI and was professor of philosophy, was passionate about discussing ideas and current events, as well as promoting well-reasoned and logical arguments and debate.
 
During this virtual talk, Gilmore will explore how philosophy is not a special domain of inquiry, but instead philosophy is actually a more in-depth version of a conversation that we already have in our day-to-day lives. In the ordinary course of life we are guided by norms and beliefs about important values, which guide our behavior and shape our choices. These beliefs are subject to distorting influences that we do not see, from our culture and society, and from our desires and appetites. Plato compared our ordinary pre-reflective beliefs to shadows, mere images of the real thing. Using philosophy, we begin to see these shadows for what they are, and we begin to know ourselves. Through this framework Gilmore will examine what it looks like when philosophical problems arise out of the circumstances of our lives.
 
Gilmore is a Mt. Desert Island native. He earned a PhD in Philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University in 2013 for his dissertation entitled “Intrinsic Goods and Their Role in The Good Life in Plato,” and a BA in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from St. John’s College, Annapolis in 2002. In 2007, Gilmore was a Summer Member at The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, where he was a Leon Gilbert Barnhart Fellow. Since 2013, Gilmore has worked as a professional musician in North Carolina, where he leads a jazz trio under his own name.
 
The Hammond Memorial Lecture was established in 2016 and features an annual talk that explores philosophy for a lay audience. Hammond, the son of Debby and Scott Hammond of Bar Harbor and a graduate of the Mount Desert Island High School, was a philosophy professor who passed away in 2015.
 
Registration is required to receive the Zoom link for this program. To register fill out the form at jesuplibrary.org/events/hammond or email kchagnon@jesuplibrary.org.