Tuesday, November 1
| 10:00 am-12:00 pm | "Nietzsche on the Use and Disadvantage of Morality," Dr. Randall Havas [Bob Muir], Kaneko Auditorium 
Nietzsche is not alone among 19th century writers in thinking that our deepest existential problems do not admit of moral solutions. Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky come to mind as fellow travelers here. He famously goes further, however, and suggests that our sense of ourselves as moral agents might in fact be “a symptom of regression” and “a danger, a seduction, a poison, a narcotic, through which the present [is] possibly living at the expense of the future” (GM Preface §6). This idea that moral values are not just not a solution to our problems but actually make those problems worse is provocative, to say the least. Explaining the provocation will involve saying what he means by “morality” and making clear in what way it’s harmful as well as more precisely identifying for whom it represents a threat. Roughly, his idea is that our allegiance to a disembodied conception of free will and the broadly liberal conception of agency it underwrites prevents us from seeing that some ways of life are better (in his sense, more “meaningful”) than others. Nietzsche’s defense of the individual in the face of the depredations of the herd he thinks of as the current incarnation of this form of morality encourages charges of elitism, a version of which he quite readily embraces. The individuality he defends, however, turns out to be a form of mutuality open to anyone willing to shoulder the burdens of responsibility. Dr. Havas is a Professor of Philosophy at Willamette University with specialty areas in Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, 19th & 20th Century Continental Philosophy. He earned his PhD from Harvard University. Randall Havas is the author of Nietzsche’s Genealogy: Nihilism and the Will to Knowledge. He has published articles on Nietzsche, Heidegger, and most recently Dostoevsky: "Raskolnikov Beyond Good and Evil," forthcoming in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment: Philosophical Perspectives. He teaches courses on the Self, Existentialism, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Kant, and Nietzsche. He also teaches martial arts and is an accomplished dog trainer. |
| 1:00 pm-2:00 pm | "Writing Potpourri," Anne Alenskis, Becky Miller-Moe, Betty Kasoff, Bob Muir, Lois Rosen, Ruth Crowley, Vernelle Judy [Lois Rosen], Kaneko Auditorium
Welcome to The Writing Potpourri!. Potpourri is French for a mixture of fragrant plants. Our ICL Writing Group is providing a tasty mixture of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry for your listening pleasure. |
| 2:00 pm-3:00 pm | "Great Decisions DVD: Outer Space," Hardin King [Jeanette Flaming], Kaneko Auditorium 
The launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957 marked the beginning of the space era and of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. in the 21st century, there are many more participants in space, including countries such as India and China, and commercial companies such as SpaceX. How will the United States fare in a crowded outer space? By Eric BergerHardin King has been a member of ICL since September 2004 |
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Thursday, November 3
| 10:00 am-12:00 pm | "Whose History? Whose Memory? Wrestling with Problematic Pasts," Ellen Eisenberg [Jeanette Flaming], Kaneko Auditorium  Over the last several years, controversies over monuments have reached a fever pitch. Statues of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Nathan Bedford Forrest and other Confederate icons have been removed from their pedestals in many southern cities, some by local governments and others by protestors. Here in Oregon, much of the critical reassessment of monuments has focused on figures associated with settler colonialism, particularly the pioneer. In June, 2020, The Pioneer and The Pioneer Mother, two statues on the University of Oregon campus, were torn down during a protest; in Salem reliefs in front of the Capitol were defaced.This talk will focus on controversies over such memorials, their roots in contested histories, and the various ways in which communities and institutions are addressing them. I will share my own exploration of this topic over the last several years and during my current sabbatical, including creation of new courses on contested memory, reevaluation of my own scholarship, engagement in local efforts to evaluate and address problematic histories, and my recent journey to Alabama to see Confederate sites of memory, empty pedestals, and new memorials to the Civil Rights Movement and to victims of racial violence. Ellen Eisenberg holds the Dwight and Margaret Lear chair in American History at Willamette University, where she teaches courses on the history of the U.S. since the Civil War. Her published work includes five monographs and a number of articles on American Jewish history, with a focus on the American West. The First to Cry Down Injustice? Western Jews and Japanese Removal during WWII was a 2008 National Jewish Book Award finalist. Recent works include two volumes on the history of Jews in Oregon, titled Embracing a Western Identity: Jewish Oregonians, 1849-1950 and The Jewish Oregon Story, 1950-2015. She is currently editing an anthology titled Jewish Identities in the American West: Relational Perspectives, which be published in Brandeis University Press’s series in American Jewish History, Culture and Life in December of 2022. |
Tuesday, November 8
| 10:00 am-12:00 pm | "Luckiamute Watershed," Stephen Dow Beckham [Jinx Brandt], Kaneko Auditorium 
The subject will include the larger context of the development of the forest products industry in the Willamette Valley starting in the 1850s with special focus on the timber-rich Luckiamute watershed.Stephen Dow Beckham is the Pamplin Professor of History, Emeritus, Lewis & Clark College. A graduate of the University of Oregon and UCLA, Professor Beckham taught college students for 42 years. He is a former Oregon Professor of the Year and recipient of the Asher Distinguished Teaching Award, American Historical Association. He is the author of numerous books, exhibits, and interpretive centers from the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress to the master plan of the Hong Kong History Museum. |
| 1:00 pm-3:00 pm | "Up Close & Personal: Member Stories on Military Related Adventures," Glenn Olmsted,Eric Reif,George Adkins,Judith McGavin,Todd Wenger,Paul Rice [Don Gallagher], Kaneko Auditorium
Since this will be the week of Veterans Day - formerly Armistice Day - we will indeed honor our veterans while at the same time sharing life stories of our military related experiences. We will hear stories from some of our members related to their experience with military service and/or outcomes of their nation’s military adventures. |
Thursday, November 10
| 10:00 am-12:00 pm | "Mental Health in America — Awareness, Issues and Possible Solutions.," Dr. Rebecca Miller-Moe, Kaneko Auditorium 
For the first segment of our time together we will view the short film “Every Brilliant Thing”, based on a one-person play of the same name in which a young boy attempts to raise the spirits of his chronically depressed mother who has attempted suicide. He compiles a list of things that cheer him up and he hopes will make life worth living, including ice cream, laughing so hard milk shoots out your nose, watching construction cranes. For the second segment we will examine the current landscape of adult mental health in America, pre and post pandemic, including trends, emerging issues and possible solutions. The critically acclaimed one-person play, “Every Brilliant Thing”, was written by Duncan Macmillan. The film version, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, features British actor Jonny Donahoe who, with Duncan Macmillan, wrote the screen play. Dr. Rebecca Miller-Moe, who goes by Becky, holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and is currently licensed and practicing in Oregon. Her work experience has spanned public, non-profit and private settings with families, adults and teens. Suicide can be a difficult topic for some, so please feel free to telephone Becky with concerns or questions at either 503-508-6154, personal cell, or 503-509-9577, work cell. |
Tuesday, November 15
| 10:00 am-12:00 pm | "Raptor History and Hazards," Lacy Campbell [Michael Hubbard], Kaneko Auditorium
Lacy Campbell has worked with birds for over 22 years. She started working with raptors at the age of 14 and has cared for them in all stages of life. She has flown them in free flight bird shows and has managed their care in wildlife rehabilitation. Lacy co-founded the Oregon Wildlife Rehabilitation Association and served as board president for over 4 years. She is currently in medical school to become a Naturopathic doctor. |
| 1:00 pm-3:00 pm | "David Roberts: Artist and Traveler," John Olbrantz [Jinx Brandt], Kaneko Auditorium  David Roberts (1796–1864) was a self-taught Scottish painter who rose from the depths of poverty and obscurity in Edinburgh to become one of the most celebrated artists of his generation, a member of the Royal Academy, and a painter whose works can be found in some of the most distinguished public and private collections in Europe and America. A highly ambitious and motivated artist who loved to travel, he is best known for the travelogue of Egypt and the Holy Land that he produced with lithographer Louis Haghe from sketches he made during a nine-month trip to the region in 1838–39. These exquisitely rendered prints of the architecture and topography of the Middle East, as well as the prints of Moorish Spain that he made on a trip there a decade earlier, firmly established him as an important Orientalist painter and the most accomplished architectural and topographical painter of his day.In his lecture, art historian John Olbrantz will trace David Robert’s fascinating and colorful career, from his apprenticeship as a house painter and decorator in Scotland in the early 1800s to his emergence as a prominent theatrical scene painter and popular easel painter in Edinburgh and London in the 1820s. He will discuss the Grand Tour and the emergence of travel literature as an important literary genre in late 18th and early 19th centuries and Roberts’s decision, in 1832-33, to travel to Spain and Morocco to sketch the architecture of Moorish Spain and North Africa. He will continue with a discussion of early travelers to the Middle East and Roberts’s epic journey to Egypt and the Holy Land in 1838-39 that finally cemented his artistic legacy. And, he will conclude with a discussion of the art of lithography and the publication of Roberts’s Egypt and Holy Land folios in the 1840s, as well as the final two decades of the artist’s career. John Olbrantz is The Maribeth Collins Director of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He holds a BA degree from Western Washington University and an MA degree from the University of Washington in the history of art, and a Study Certificate from the Getty Leadership Institute in arts administration and management. Throughout his long career, he has held museum directorships in Washington, California, and most recently, in Oregon. A specialist in ancient and American art, Olbrantz is particularly interested in Roman art, the history of archaeology, contemporary American art, and the history of museums. Over the years, he has written about the art and architecture of Roman Britain, ancient glass, Roman mosaics from Syria, the history of American Egyptology, the American discovery of the ancient Near East, and the 19th century Scottish artist and traveler David Roberts. |
Thursday, November 17
| 10:00 am-12:00 pm | "Was Democracy Really on the Ballot on Election Day?," Seth Cotlar, Mary Follo [Don Gallagher], Kaneko Auditorium
Leading up to our November 8th election we heard warnings of a crisis of democracy where the traditional horse race politics of Democrat versus Republican seemed to be supplanted by a more fundamental confrontation between defenders of our democracy and those who call themselves patriots while pursuing authoritarian ideas to bend or break the institutions of government. |
| 12:00 pm-1:30 pm | "End of year luncheon - 'Autumn Banquet' - and General Meeting/Election," Joan Robinson [ICL Board], Cat Cavern
First luncheon in 2 ½ years! Plus the General Meeting that includes voting on the 2023-2024 Board of Directors. |
Tuesday, November 22
| 10:00 am-12:00 pm | Canceled No class. The semester ended on November 17th. |
Thursday, November 24
THANKSGIVING NO CLASSES |