The distinguished joint lecture by Professor Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Chair of Philosophy, and Director, South Asia Institute, Columbia University and Professor Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Albert Guérard Professor in Literature, Departments of Comparative Literature, French & Italian, Spanish & Portuguese, Stanford University was organized by the Department of Philosophy, University of Hyderabad (UoH) on 17th June 2016 in collaboration with Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda. The lecture was chaired by Prof. Amitabha Dasgupta, former Dean, School of Humanities, UoH.
Prof. Bilgrami gave a talk on the topic “Alienation and Rationality”. His main focus was to problematize the concept of liberty and equality, two concepts that have come to define Modernity, insisting that they are incompatible concepts. However this paradoxical situation can be salvaged, according to him, if we introduce the concept of Un-alienated or a sense of belongingness into the fabric of society.
Prof. Gumbrecht spoke on “What does Prosody do to Texts?”, wherein he talked about scandalization in literature such as the relation between form and content in poetry. He read a couple of classic poems both in English and German to the delight of the audience while making his “prosodic” presentation.
These lectures were followed by an intense, stimulating response from the audience.
-By Prof. K.S. Prasad, Head, Department of Philosophy