Existentialist Society

Monthly lectures from previous years


5 Feb 2008
Howard Dossor (Author of 'Colin Wilson: The man and his mind')
"The Existential Act"

4 Mar 2008
Dr. Rod Foster (Philosophy, University of Melbourne)
"Existentialism and Human Nature"

1 Apr 2008
Assoc. Prof. Stan van Hooft (Philosophical Studies, Deakin University)
"How can we live in a world of global injustice?"

6 May 2008
John Lenarcic (University in the Pub, RMIT University)
"What is Red? Colour as the Canvas of Existence"

3 Jun 2008
Dr. Jack Reynolds (Philosophy, La Trobe University)
"The Unique Existentialism of Merleau-Ponty"

1 Jul 2008
Dr. Gordon Preece (Urban Seed)
"Vocation in a Post-Vocational World: A Response to Bauman's Liquid Modernity"

5 Aug 2008
Prof. Graham Priest (Philosophy, University of Melbourne)
"Heidegger and Zen"

2 Sep 2008
Howard Dossor (Author, 'Colin Wilson: The man and his mind')
"Existential Ascent in Nikos Kazantzakis"

7 Oct 2008
John Noack (Carl Jung Society)
"Revisionist Neo-Platonism in Freud, Jung and George Arthur Gaskell"

4 Nov 2008
Melbourne Cup Day Lecture
Dr. David Rathbone (Philosophy, University of Melbourne)
"The Nightmare of Reason: Hegel, Kafka and Nietzsche"

2 Dec 2008
Jon Roffe (Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy)
"Foucault's Problem"


3 Feb 2009
Brent McAuslan (Former Facilitator, Rajneesh USA)
"Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence: Prediction or Prophecy?"
February 2009 lecture transcript (Adobe Acrobat format, 56 kB)

3 Mar 2009
Dr. Maurita Harney (Philosophy, University of Melbourne)
"The History of Existentialism in Australasian Philosophy"

7 Apr 2009
Dr. Matthew Sharpe (Deakin University)
"Art, Politics and Truth"

5 May 2009
Dr. Paul Ashton (Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE)
"Self and World: The Role of the Thinker in Hegel's Philosophy"
May 2009 lecture transcript (Adobe Acrobat format, 536 kB)

2 Jun 2009
Dr. Ashley Woodward (Creative Arts, University of Melbourne)
"Nihilism, from Existentialism to Postmodernism"
June 2009 lecture transcript (Adobe Acrobat format, 100 kB)

7 Jul 2009
Paul Daniels (Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy)
"Kant, the Sublime and the Subject"

4 Aug 2009
Dr. John Perkins (Secular Party of Australia)
"The Enlightenment as a Secular Project?"
August 2009 lecture transcript (Adobe Acrobat format, 86 kB)

1 Sep 2009
Dr. Rod Foster (Trinity College, University of Melbourne)
"Wittgenstein and Freud"

6 Oct 2009
Cathy McDonald (Philosophy, Monash University)
"Kantian Values, the Authentic Self and Existentialism"

3 Nov 2009
Melbourne Cup Day Lecture
Dr. Robert Miller (Philosophy, RMIT University)
"Buddhist Existentialism: From Anxiety to Authenticity and Freedom"
November 2009 lecture transcript (Adobe Acrobat format, 201 kB)

1 Dec 2009
John Stewart (Author: 'The Evolutionary Manifesto')
"How the Evolutionary Worldview Answers the Big Existential Questions"
December 2009 lecture transcript


2 Feb 2010
Howard Dossor (Author: 'Colin Wilson: The man and his mind')
"Existential Consciousness"

2 Mar 2010
Dr. Maurita Harney (Philosophy, University of Melbourne)
"Consciousness: Existentialism and the Challenge of the Neurosciences"

6 Apr 2010
Dr. Matthew Sharpe (Deakin University)
"Was Socrates an Existentialist?"

4 May 2010
Assoc. Prof. Kevin Brophy (Creative Arts, University of Melbourne)
"Creative Frenzy"

1 Jun 2010
Assoc. Prof. Millicent Vladiv-Glover (Comparative Literature, Monash University)
"Dostoevsky's Penultimate Novel 'Adolescent' (1876) and the Growing Up of Russia in the 19th Century"
Lecturer contact details

6 Jul 2010
Phillip Ferguson (Philosophy, La Trobe University)
"The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre"

3 Aug 2010
Assoc. Prof. Purushottama Bilimoria (Philosophy, Deakin/Melbourne & University of California)
"Science, Religion and Secularism: Who is winning? Can they talk rationally to each other?"
August 2010 lecture transcript (Adobe Acrobat format, 229 kB)

7 Sep 2010
Dr. David Rathbone (Philosophy, University of Melbourne)
"Existentialist? Yes! - but what kind of existentialist? The essence/existence dichotomy."

5 Oct 2010
Assoc. Prof. Stan van Hooft (Deakin University)
"Religion and Hope"
October 2010 lecture transcript (Adobe Acrobat format, 65 kB)

2 Nov 2010
Melbourne Cup Day Lecture
Anne Seitz (Sociology, Swinburne University)
"Is Science Our Fundamentalist Secular Religion?"
November 2010 lecture transcript (Adobe Acrobat format, 152 kB)

7 Dec 2010
Dr. Jack Reynolds (La Trobe University) and Dr. Felicity Joseph (University of Melbourne) (Deakin University)
"Existentialism and Phenomenological Method"
The Continuum Companion to Existentialism

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