Allen Mendenhall will discuss how his experiences as a student at Furman University shaped his views about the importance of civility and humility to the pursuit of knowledge. Using examples from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. to Aeschylus’s The Oresteia, Dr. Mendenhall will analogize the fact-finding methods of the legal system to the acquisition of knowledge in a university setting. Just as legal fora apply procedures that govern inquiry into facts and truths, so universities establish, or should establish, the conditions necessary for students and scholars to seek out facts and truths, or at least to attain greater clarity and understanding about a particular subject matter.
6 p.m., Watkins Room