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What Makes a Life Significant?

April 26, 2010
Cornel West professor, Princeton University [homepage]
Sissela Bok writer, philiosopher [homepage]
Louis Menand writer, 2002 Pulitzer Prize [homepage]
James Kloppenberg professor, American history, Harvard University [homepage]

Philosopher Sissela Bok, Harvard professor Louis Menand, and Princeton professor Cornel West discuss what makes a life significant, in a panel discussion moderated by James Kloppenberg.

A little over a century ago, the Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James gave a public lecture entitled "What Makes a Life Significant?" In honor of the 100th anniversary of his death and to celebrate his enduring influence, this panel of distinguished scholars revisits the question posed in that lecture from a range of historical and contemporary starting points. What do we, in the 21st century, think "makes a life significant"? What can the academy contribute to an exploration of that question?

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COMMENTS

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Posted by Tony Brown (not verified) October 11, 2010 at 12:28am

Thanks for a fine program. William James' lack of any formal degree other than his Harvard Medical School M.D., was news to me. Taken in the context of Mr. West's assertion that James attended the school when it was a progressive "backwater" establishment only adds to James' reputation as a nonconformist thinker. Indeed, and interesting man.

Posted by jeremy_tipton July 13, 2010 at 1:10pm

[00:29:51] Sissela Bok discusses philosopher William James' thoughts, while he traveled back from speaking at Chautauqua, about blindness to the lives of others.