Autumn 2011 Symposium

Sense and Sensibility and the Culture of Sympathy
October 29, 2011
Topic chosen to coincide with the 200th anniversary of publication.

Join us for a daylong symposium at the University of Chicago campus, with free round-trip shuttle bus service from the Gleacher Center.

Topic

This year is the bicentennial of the publication of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility; the Basic Program marks the occasion with a symposium examining the novel and its cultural and philosophical context.

Samuel Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary defined “sympathy” as “fellow feeling, mutual sensibility, the quality of being affected by the affections (feelings) of another,” and set the tone for a century to come. In particular, Adam Smith and the Scottish School of emotionalist moral philosophers equated moral sense and the imagination, regarded them as innate qualities, and argued that the human propensity to do evil was checked by our ability to think ourselves into the suffering we cause others when we think or act immorally. Austen’s novel is both a serious reflection and humorous take on this philosophy, which for the first time held feelings and passions to be equivalent to human powers of reason.

Program

The program includes lectures by Basic Program instructor Elisabeth Lenckos and others, a performance by conductor and keyboard artist Stephen Alltop, and small discussion groups led by Basic Program instructors.

Location

The Gordon Center for Integrative Science at 57th Street and Drexel Avenue (one block away from Cobb Hall, where our Saturday courses are held).

Tuition

Tuition includes meals (continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and all-day beverage service).

$185 Early registration ends October 16

$215 Regular registration