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<div style="text-align:center"><font size="3">Monte Johnson (UC San Diego)</font></div>
<div style="text-align:center"><font size="5">"A Reconstruction of Aristotle’s Lost Work the
<i>Protrepticus (Exhortation to Philosophy)</i> as a Dialogue”</font></div>
<div style="text-align:center"><font size="3">UC Merced Philosophy Speaker Series</font></div>
<div style="text-align:center"><font size="3">Friday, February 21, 2025</font></div>
<div style="text-align:center"><b><font size="3">4-5:30pm COB1 276</font></b></div>
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<div style="text-align:left">Like his teacher Plato, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) wrote several dialogues, but all of them have been lost. It is possible, however, to reconstruct at least one of them out of quotations of the work in later Greek authors: the <em>Protrepticus (Exhortation
to Philosophy)</em>. Aristotle wrote the <em>Protrepticus</em> as a defense of Academic Philosophy against its detractors. In this talk, I will provide you with an English translation of our reconstruction, explain our theory of its structure and the characters
in the dialogue, and discuss some of the arguments, including why some ancient Greeks criticized philosophy, and how philosophy can be defended as not only practically useful, but also intrinsically valuable and in fact transformative.</div>
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<div style="text-align:left">This event is free and open to the public. If you’re a student at another school or community college faculty, contact Dan Hicks (<a href="mailto:danhicks@ucmerced.edu">danhicks@ucmerced.edu</a>) for directions and a parking subsidy. </div>
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<div style="text-align:left"><b>Please note the updated time and location</b></div>
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<div>Dan Hicks</div>
<div>Associate Professor and Chair</div>
<div>Department of Philosophy</div>
<div>University of California, Merced</div>
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<div>Pronouns: they/them/their</div>
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