Uc Berkeley Graduate Council Lectures (audio)

Robert Brandom, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, argues that genealogies (Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Foucault) present the revenge of naturalism on rationalism. Hegel teaches us how to replace the genealogical hermeneutics of suspicion with a hermeneutics of magnanimity that allows us to see naturalism and rationalism as complementing rather than competing with one another. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 25074]

Domestic dogs, Canis familiaris, have insinuated themselves into our society and imagination: long present in our art and narratives, they are now ubiquitous in American homes. Alexandra Horowitz, Barnard College, Columbia University, discusses the dog's historical and contemporary role, attributions typically made to dogs, and an alternative empirical approach to considering dogs. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 25113]

Women have achieved parity in obtaining doctoral degrees, but do not experience the same career trajectory as men. Is this discrimination or family formation? Mary Ann Mason, Professor of the Graduate School and Faculty Co-Director of the Earl Warren Institute for Law and Social Policy, University of California, Berkeley explores twelve years of research to address the question of the effect of family formation from the graduate student years though retirement. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Education] [Show ID: 24965]

Top incomes represent a small share of the population but a very significant share of total income and total taxes paid. Emmanuel Saez, Professor of Economics and Director, Center for Equitable Growth, University of California, Berkeley presents evidence on income inequality gathered by a collective group of researchers in the World Top Incomes Database. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Business] [Show ID: 24689]

Leon Wieseltier is an American writer, critic, and longstanding literary editor of The New Republic. In this UC Berkeley Forester lecture, he discusses the Jewish belief in a Messiah. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 24599]

Are intelligent machines possible? If they are, what will they be like? Jeff Hawkins, an inventor, engineer, neuroscientist, author and entrepreneur, frames these questions by reviewing some of the efforts to build intelligent machines. He posits that machine intelligence is only possible by first understanding how the brain works and then building systems that work on the same principles. He describes Numenta’s work using neocortical models to understand the torrent of machine-generated data being created today. He will conclude with predictions on how machine intelligence will unfold in the near and long term future and why creating intelligent machines is important for humanity. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 24412]

How the brain creates intelligence is viewed by many as the greatest scientific quest of all time. We are living at the time when rapid progress is being made and a comprehensive theory of brain function is emerging. Jeff Hawkins, an inventor, engineer, neuroscientist, author and entrepreneur, presents the big picture of what we know so far and describes recent progress in a core issue: why neurons are arranged as they are in the neocortex, how this arrangement builds models of the world, and how these models make predictions and generate actions. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 24411]

There is widespread agreement that happiness is good, but is it the sole ultimate good? Princeton University Professor Peter Singer explores arguments for and against such a conclusion. He considers the implications for public policy that take happiness as one of the most important goods that individuals can achieve. Singer specializes in applied ethics, approaching ethics from a secular preference utilitarian perspective Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 24344]

Theda Skocpol surveys the current political landscape and explores its most consequential questions: What happened to Obama’s “new New Deal”? Why have his achievements enraged opponents more than they have satisfied supporters? How has the Tea Party’s ascendance reshaped American politics? At this moment of economic uncertainty and extreme polarization, as voters prepare to render another verdict on Obama’s historic presidency, Skocpol reviews its triumphs and setbacks to see where we might be headed. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 24397]

All the ancient philosophers, pagans and Christians alike, agreed that death is the separation of a soul and a body. While there was much disagreement on the precise relationship between a being and his soul, as well as what sort of thing they took a soul to be, it is the agreement among the philosophers rather than their differences that calls for critical attention. Jonathan Barnes examines why ancient philosophers believed that beings were composed of two parts, the divorce of which is death. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 23825]

Michael Marmot is an internationally acclaimed public health specialist and a distinguished epidemiologist. Marmot heads an active epidemiology research program on social and cultural determinants of health and ill-health. His work on cardiovascular disease has led to important strategies of prevention and heath policy. His new research includes investigating social gradients in health in Japan, causes of East-West differences in coronary heart disease, and pursuing an initiative on psychological triggers of biological pathways of disease. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 23792]

Norman Myers was born in Clitheroe, Lancashire and attended Keble College in Oxford. He is a British environmentalist and authority on biodiversity and is a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences. He is currently a professor and Visiting Fellow at Green College in Oxford, and holds visiting professorships at UC Berkeley, Harvard, Cornell and Stanford. Myers has studied the mass extinction of species and problems of tropical deforestation and through his research eventually developed the concept of biodiversity hotspots. He has also written on climate refugees and food and hunger in Sub-Saharan African. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 23328]

Eugene A. Hammel is internationally recognized for his work in social anthropology. In addition to studying social structure and kinship, his interests have included the statistical and formal analysis of social anthropological data. He has focused on peasant society and culture, particularly Balkan, and historical and anthropological demography. Hammel's fieldwork has been varied, from an investigation of Serbo-Croatian and Albanian kinship terminology among immigrants in California, to the patterns of consumption of alcoholic beverages among ethnic groups in the Southwestern United States. He has also researched Chiricahua and Navaho archaeology and social networks and mobility in urban locations in Yugoslavia. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 23370]

Eric Foner is an American historian whose interests include political history, the history of freedom and the early history of the Republican Party. Foner is also the leading contemporary historian on the Civil-War Reconstruction period. He is only the second person to serve as president of the three major professional organizations: the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 23361]

Myles Burnyeat is an English classicist and philosopher who is considered a leader in the field of ancient philosophy. He previously served as a Fellow of the British Academy, Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and President of the Aristotelian Society. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 23354]

Yegor Gaidar was a Russian economist and politician, and was the Acting Prime Minister of Russia from June 15, 1992 to December 14, 1992. While in government, Gaidar advocated liberal economic reforms. His most well-known decision was to abolish price regulation by the state, which immediately resulted in a major increase of prices and amounted to officially authorizing a market economy in Russia. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 23322]

Martin Rees, Royal Society Research Professor and Fellow of King's College, University of Cambridge Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 23318]

Jean-Jacques Laffont is Professor of Economic Sciences at the Université des Sciences Sociales de Toulouse and the founding Director of the Institut d'Economie Industrielle. His interests include public economics, the economics of uncertainty, incentives in public decision-making, and econometrics. His most recent work focuses on the theory of incentives and the economics of regulation as applied to the telecommunications industry. Laffont received the Yrjö-Jahnsson medal with Jean Tirole for work collected in the 1993 book, A Theory of Procurement and Regulatio (1993). A recent book, "Price Controls and the Economics of Institutions in China (1997), written with Claudia Senik-Leygonie, reflects concerns with pricing policies in developing countries. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 23376]

Amartya Sen is credited worldwide for his invaluable contributions to research on fundamental problems in economics and philosophy. His theoretical and empirical work encompasses a range of issues, from famine and poverty to social choice theory, decision theory, and the demands of rationality and freedom. Sen is widely recognized for his ability to join economics and philosophy, reflected in his work through ethics and a sense of common humanity. In 1998, he won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in "social choice theory," the philosophical and mathematical inquiry into links between individual values and collective choice. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 23375]

Myles Burnyeat is an English classicist and philosopher who is considered a leader in the field of ancient philosophy. He previously served as a Fellow of the British Academy, Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and President of the Aristotelian Society. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 23353]