John Lachs, Centennial Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University

Dr. John Lachs has been a member of the Vanderbilt faculty since 1967.  He has written a number of books and countless articles over this period and before.  He is also recognized as an outstanding teacher at Vanderbilt faculty, recently receiving the Graduate Teaching Award (2000) and the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Freshmen Award (1999).  He was earlier awarded the Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1972).  His style is highly accessible as Lachs is committed to making philosophical questions and their discussion something within the grasp of all his audiences.  Dr. Lachs is a pragmatist in the tradition of William James and Josiah Royce.

A recipient of the Herbert Schneider Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Philosophy in 1997, Dr. Lachs is also the author of the following books, among others*:

Intermediate Man. Hacket Publishers, Indianapolis, © 1981, paperback © 1983;
Mind and Philosophers. Vanderbilt University Press, © 1987;
The Relevance of Philosophy to Life, Vanderbilt University Press, © 1995;
In Love with Life, Vanderbilt University Press, © 1998;
Thinking in the Ruins: Wittgenstein and Santayana. Vanderbilt University Press, © 2000
A Community of Individuals. Routledge, © 2003.

*Some of these are available at the Sewanee University book store.

Titles currently in preparation include On Santayana, Human Natures, The Metaphysics of Activity: Santayana and Dewey, and Education.

The topics Dr. Lachs will be exploring this semester:

September 16^th/17^th

Tolerating the Different (or On Leaving Others Alone)
Lecture in Convocation Hall, 4:30 pm, September 16^th.
Dialogue on Tolerance with Students in Elliott Hall, 7:00 pm.

September 24^th

How a Thoughtful Person Might Consider God Today
School of Theology, Hamilton Hall (Hargrove Auditorium), 4:30 pm

October 21^st

On Ethics in Business, a presentation with student/alumni response panel
Bairnwick Women's Center, 4:30 pm

November 18^th

How-Then-Shall-We-Live? Lectures presents
John Lachs on Vocation and the University
4:30 pm, Convocation Hall

Commenting on the relationship of philosophy to living Lachs has said, “I found myself doing philosophy not because I was interested in abstract problems but because I was interested in very concrete solutions to human problems.  In that sense I was doing what Dewey admonishes us to do, long before I even read Dewey.  I just felt there were problems that are terribly important, very profound and very difficult to deal with…I view my job first and foremost as that of an educator, which means very importantly as a gadfly.  A gadfly who takes unpopular positions, not because they may the right ones but because they need to be heard.  Who challenges what seems crazy or irrational in society, who stands up for values that need spokespersons, who stands up for what is humane and sensible.”

-  fr. Comments in an interview with Pat Shade.  Read the entire conversation on the Vanderbilt website:  http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/philosophy/faculty/lachs.html.  

 

Lilly Fellows Home | Lilly Home | University of the South