Roundtables: 2013

Upcoming 20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015201420132012

Our roundtable format is designated the Theaetetus Table, an extempore discussion among five participants, all leaders in their respective fields, and named for the classical Greek mathematician and eponym for the Platonic dialogue investigating the nature of knowledge, who proved that there are five regular convex polyhedra, or Platonic solids. Each Theaetetus Table aspires to emulate the dialogue’s unhurried search for wisdom; and, like the five Platonic solids held to be the fundamental building blocks of the classical elements, the contributions of our five participants become the fundamental constituents of interdisciplinary insights emerging in the alchemy of the roundtable, insights that, in turn, transform the elemental thinking of those participants. The gathering of five discussants also symbolizes the five interrelated qualities of mind our interdisciplinary forums are intended to facilitate in our participants, and inculcate in our audience: curiosity, playfulness, inspiration, reflection, and wonder.

Saturday, February 16th
3:00 - 4:30PM

Urdu Poetry: Ghalib and the Ghazal

“Plaintiffs in Paper Robes: The First Ghazal of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib” Frances Pritchett and Mustafa Menai will discuss the poetry of Ghalib and the ghazal form by looking at the first verse of the first ghazal of his divan. In Pritchett’s words, “An Urdu ghazal consists of a series of miniature poems, each two lines long.… read more »

Saturday, February 16th
3:00 - 4:30PM

Urdu Poetry: Ghalib and the Ghazal

“Plaintiffs in Paper Robes: The First Ghazal of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib” Frances Pritchett and Mustafa Menai will discuss the poetry of Ghalib and the ghazal form by looking at the first verse of the first ghazal of his divan. In Pritchett’s words, “An Urdu ghazal consists of a series of miniature poems, each two lines long.… read more »

  Watch

Saturday, February 23rd
2:30 - 4:30PM

Love, the Interrogative

In one of his novels, Milan Kundera suggested that “love is a continual interrogation.” What is this thing called love? Is it, as Shakespeare might have it, “the star to every wandering bark”? Or, in Bronzino’s words, “always a fountain and a vase of tears”?… read more »

Saturday, February 23rd
2:30 - 4:30PM

Love, the Interrogative

In one of his novels, Milan Kundera suggested that “love is a continual interrogation.” What is this thing called love? Is it, as Shakespeare might have it, “the star to every wandering bark”? Or, in Bronzino’s words, “always a fountain and a vase of tears”?… read more »

  Watch

Saturday, March 9th
1:30 - 3:30PM

The Topology of Fear

How do emotions color and shape our actions? How do we decide to take action in the midst of fear for our own lives–go to war, fight an intruder, save a person falling on subway tracks–or to ward off catastrophes such as global climate change and the irreversible loss of species that could lead to the extinction of our own species?… read more »

Saturday, March 9th
1:30 - 3:30PM

The Topology of Fear

How do emotions color and shape our actions? How do we decide to take action in the midst of fear for our own lives–go to war, fight an intruder, save a person falling on subway tracks–or to ward off catastrophes such as global climate change and the irreversible loss of species that could lead to the extinction of our own species?… read more »

  Watch

Saturday, March 16th
2:00 - 3:30PM

Elizabeth Bishop: A Conversation about Her Poetry

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) is one of the great masters of American poetry of the 20th Century. Her remarkable gifts have been described in a variety of ways, but one gift repeatedly recognized by readers is her skill at recounting the results of her capacity for observation.… read more »

Saturday, March 16th
2:00 - 3:30PM

Elizabeth Bishop: A Conversation about Her Poetry

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) is one of the great masters of American poetry of the 20th Century. Her remarkable gifts have been described in a variety of ways, but one gift repeatedly recognized by readers is her skill at recounting the results of her capacity for observation.… read more »

  Watch

Saturday, April 13th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Music to Whose Ears? Music, Emotion, and Mind

A foundational work on emotion and music, Leonard Meyer’s 1956 treatise,Emotion and Meaning in Music, describes competing philosophical positions regarding musical meaning. It might rest exclusively within the context of the work itself; or refer to the extra-musical world of concepts, actions, emotional states, and character; or stem from an intellectual perception of the formalist qualities of the work; or find its foundations in an emotional response to musical relationships.… read more »

Saturday, April 13th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Music to Whose Ears? Music, Emotion, and Mind

A foundational work on emotion and music, Leonard Meyer’s 1956 treatise,Emotion and Meaning in Music, describes competing philosophical positions regarding musical meaning. It might rest exclusively within the context of the work itself; or refer to the extra-musical world of concepts, actions, emotional states, and character; or stem from an intellectual perception of the formalist qualities of the work; or find its foundations in an emotional response to musical relationships.… read more »

  Watch

Saturday, April 27th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Ignorance and Curiosity

Physics Nobel laureate David Gross claims that the most important product of science is ignorance. Science is the quest not just for knowledge, but for better questions, and we’re generally more engaged by questions than by answers. Thus, ignorance drives science and curiosity is its engine.… read more »

Saturday, April 27th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Ignorance and Curiosity

Physics Nobel laureate David Gross claims that the most important product of science is ignorance. Science is the quest not just for knowledge, but for better questions, and we’re generally more engaged by questions than by answers. Thus, ignorance drives science and curiosity is its engine.… read more »

  Watch

Synthetic biology, and its sister field systems biology, offers the means to reengineer DNA in ways (and at a pace) that Nature, in her evolutionary wisdom, never envisioned. Standing at the unique crossroads of biology, engineering, computer science and neuroscience, these emerging fields are working toward the development of novel drugs and energy sources, the cure of disease and prolongation of life, and even the creation of new forms of life.… read more »

Saturday, May 11th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Synthetic and Systems Biology: Reinventing the Code of Life

Synthetic biology, and its sister field systems biology, offers the means to reengineer DNA in ways (and at a pace) that Nature, in her evolutionary wisdom, never envisioned. Standing at the unique crossroads of biology, engineering, computer science and neuroscience, these emerging fields are working toward the development of novel drugs and energy sources, the cure of disease and prolongation of life, and even the creation of new forms of life.… read more »

  Watch

Saturday, May 18th
6:30 - 8:00PM

Second Annual Heavy MeNtal Variety Show

A night of mind, brain, and magic. The Amygdaloids will play several suites of our original songs on mind/brain topics: the mind-body problem, memory, emotion, unconscious processes, and mental disorders. Each suite will be preceded by a short (3 min) lecture on the scientific or philosophical foundations of the topic by Neuroscientist and Amygdaloid, Joseph LeDoux.… read more »

Saturday, May 18th
6:30 - 8:00PM

Second Annual Heavy MeNtal Variety Show

A night of mind, brain, and magic. The Amygdaloids will play several suites of our original songs on mind/brain topics: the mind-body problem, memory, emotion, unconscious processes, and mental disorders. Each suite will be preceded by a short (3 min) lecture on the scientific or philosophical foundations of the topic by Neuroscientist and Amygdaloid, Joseph LeDoux.… read more »

  Watch

Saturday, June 8th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Altruism and Empathy

Is selflessness a necessary illusion? Are we condemned to weigh the costs (whether consciously or not) of the welfare of others against the benefits to ourselves ? We develop a “theory of mind” around age three, concurrently building our capacity to recognize emotions experienced by others.… read more »

Saturday, June 8th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Altruism and Empathy

Is selflessness a necessary illusion? Are we condemned to weigh the costs (whether consciously or not) of the welfare of others against the benefits to ourselves ? We develop a “theory of mind” around age three, concurrently building our capacity to recognize emotions experienced by others.… read more »

  Watch

Friday, October 11th
7:00 - 7:45PM

The Amygdaloids Warburg Symposium Concert

The Amygdaloids are a New York band made up of scientists who shed their scientific garb at night and take to the stage with songs about love and life peppered with insights drawn from research about mind and brain and mental disorders.… read more »

Friday, October 11th
7:00 - 7:45PM

The Amygdaloids Warburg Symposium Concert

The Amygdaloids are a New York band made up of scientists who shed their scientific garb at night and take to the stage with songs about love and life peppered with insights drawn from research about mind and brain and mental disorders.… read more »

  Watch

Saturday, October 12th
9:00AM - 4:15PM

Aby Warburg: Art, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis: Day 1

This two-day symposium explores Warburg’s ideas and their adumbrations, e.g., his preoccupations with – and intuitions about – memory, both in relation to different forms of artistic creation and in anticipation of concepts related to neuroplasticity and neuroesthetics; the significance and fluency of the image – its elliptical and metaphoric functions – and of affect for the phenomena and qualia of chronology and memory, in concert with contemporary understanding of the dynamic unconscious; and the interdisciplinary mode of thought – the philosophical and art historical, cosmographic and historical – at the heart of Warburg’s atlas.… read more »

Saturday, October 12th
9:00AM - 4:15PM

Aby Warburg: Art, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis: Day 1

This two-day symposium explores Warburg’s ideas and their adumbrations, e.g., his preoccupations with – and intuitions about – memory, both in relation to different forms of artistic creation and in anticipation of concepts related to neuroplasticity and neuroesthetics; the significance and fluency of the image – its elliptical and metaphoric functions – and of affect for the phenomena and qualia of chronology and memory, in concert with contemporary understanding of the dynamic unconscious; and the interdisciplinary mode of thought – the philosophical and art historical, cosmographic and historical – at the heart of Warburg’s atlas.… read more »

  Watch

This two-day symposium explores Warburg’s ideas and their adumbrations, e.g., his preoccupations with – and intuitions about – memory, both in relation to different forms of artistic creation and in anticipation of concepts related to neuroplasticity and neuroesthetics; the significance and fluency of the image – its elliptical and metaphoric functions – and of affect for the phenomena and qualia of chronology and memory, in concert with contemporary understanding of the dynamic unconscious; and the interdisciplinary mode of thought – the philosophical and art historical, cosmographic and historical – at the heart of Warburg’s atlas.… read more »

Sunday, October 13th
9:30 - 4:15PM

Aby Warburg: Art, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis: Day 2

This two-day symposium explores Warburg’s ideas and their adumbrations, e.g., his preoccupations with – and intuitions about – memory, both in relation to different forms of artistic creation and in anticipation of concepts related to neuroplasticity and neuroesthetics; the significance and fluency of the image – its elliptical and metaphoric functions – and of affect for the phenomena and qualia of chronology and memory, in concert with contemporary understanding of the dynamic unconscious; and the interdisciplinary mode of thought – the philosophical and art historical, cosmographic and historical – at the heart of Warburg’s atlas.… read more »

  Watch

Saturday, December 7th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Secrecy and Transparency

The internet makes possible the unprecedented sharing of, access to, and data manipulation of, individual and social information with far reaching implications for personal privacy, healthcare, citizenship and national security, and for the definitions of personhood, institutional power and information itself. In this roundtable, we aim to explore contemporary notions of privacy, relationships between individuals and between individuals and institutions that arise through data exchange.… read more »

Saturday, December 7th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Secrecy and Transparency

The internet makes possible the unprecedented sharing of, access to, and data manipulation of, individual and social information with far reaching implications for personal privacy, healthcare, citizenship and national security, and for the definitions of personhood, institutional power and information itself. In this roundtable, we aim to explore contemporary notions of privacy, relationships between individuals and between individuals and institutions that arise through data exchange.… read more »

  Watch