History of Western Thought

Ross Arnold occasionally presented lectures to the public here in the Ajijic and Chapala area. The topic of this series, given in the summer of 2016, is A History of Western Thought: Why We Think the Way We Do.

Everyone has a worldview –- the way they see the world and what is meaningful in it, including how they fit into reality. And almost everyone today tends to think their worldview is the right, natural, and appropriate way of looking at things; perhaps even that their particular worldview it is the only rational way to look at the world.

But what most people, especially in the Western world, don’t realize is that most of what we think and believe –- most of what we take for granted as universal truth –- was actually made up by someone at some time in the past.

This series looks at the major themes in Western thought, where they came from, and how we need to critically understand them to have the most accurate view possible of reality.

Faith (Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas) – August 12

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Reason (Descartes, Locke, Hume) – August 19

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Experience (Kant, Schleiermacher) – August 26 

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Process (Hegel, Marx, Darwin, Whitehead) – September 2

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NO LECTURE – September 9

Will (Machiavelli, James, Nietzche) – September 16

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Meaning & Meaninglessness (Wittgenstein, Logical Positivism, Deconstructionism) – September 23

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Where do we go from here? – September 30

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