HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2012 Program - Alumni Association ...

Mark W. Roche, Ph.D.
Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Professor, German Language and
Literature; Concurrent Professor, Philosophy; Fellow, Nanovic
Institute for European Studies
Biography
Mark Roche is the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., professor of German language and literature
and concurrent professor of philosophy. He served as the I. A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the
College of Arts and Letters from 1997 to 2008.
Categories
Lectures
Art/Architecture, Education,
Spirituality
The Greatness and the Limits of the Ugly in Art
Within modern art, the concept opposite the beautiful, the ugly, has gained a strange prestige — what is its function in enhancing
the expressivity of art? What has been the special role of Christianity in this development? How can a work that portrays physical
or moral ugliness, whose form is distorted, and whose parts seem to be at odds with one another be considered great art? In
evaluating controversial art, how can we distinguish between great art that integrates the ugly and bad art? The lecture includes
images from both Christian and modern art.
Jokes and Their Relation to Reason
This entertaining presentation interlaces a number of jokes with comments on the ways in which jokes play with various kinds of
paradoxes, contradictions, and hidden meanings.
Religion and Intellectuals
Why do so many educated people lose their faith? What arguments seem to speak against religion, and how are these arguments
to be weighed? The presentation considers these issues along with the questions, “what paths to religion exist for the educated
person?” and, “which seem to be the most promising?”
Why Choose the Liberal Arts?
This lecture considers three partly overlapping grounds of a liberal arts education: first, its intrinsic value, or the distinction of
learning for its own sake, the sheer joy associated with exploring the life of the mind, and asking the great questions that give
meaning to life; second, the cultivation of those intellectual virtues that are requisite for success beyond the academy, a liberal arts
education as preparation for a career; and third, character formation and the development of a sense of vocation, the connection
to a higher purpose or calling.
The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2012 Program 97