Ep. 44 - Intellectual Virtue -- with Nathan King

Does God exist? It's a question no thoughtful person can ignore. For philosophers, it is a topic of perennial discussion and dispute. There are many arguments on both sides of the issue, and perhaps the most famous of them has to do with the reality of evil: Does all the suffering we see in the world make it irrational to believe in God, or can faith be reasonable even in the face of evil? On this episode of More Human, you will hear a debate between two Tri-C philosophers: Matthew Carey Jordan, the dean and chair for the humanities at the college's Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Humanities Center, and Sam LiPuma, a professor of philosophy at our Western Campus in Parma.     If you'd like to view the PowerPoint slides used by Dean Jordan and Professor LiPuma, copy and paste this URL into your web browser: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PG4QQ4ojTjLSCTMngZIMRcEXx-EYoplt   If you'd like to see a videorecording of the debate, go here: https://tri-c.webex.com/recordingservice/sites/tri-c/recording/749ba2aa6628103c98e672d833eb8372/playback

[Note: Technical problems resulted in problems with the audio levels in this recording. We hope you enjoy the conversation nonetheless!]    Carnegie Mellon professor Dr. Nico Slate recently visited Tri-C to talk with students about his new book Brothers: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Race. While in Cleveland, he sat down with Dean Jordan to discuss the book and broader aspects of the work he does as a scholar, educator, and citizen. For more information about Brothers, visit https://tupress.temple.edu/books/brothers

Who is Flannery O'Connor, and why should we care? On this episode of More Human, Dean Jordan talks with philosopher and priest Damian Ference about the great "Southern Grotesque" author's work, including the value of "long, loving looks" at the mundane, race and racism, "offers of grace, usually refused," and more. Anyone interested in American literature, philosophy, or religion will enjoy this conversation.    For more about Fr. Ference's book Understanding the Hillbilly Thomist, visit: https://bookstore.wordonfire.org/products/understanding-the-hillbilly-thomist  

On this episode of More Human, Dean Jordan is joined by Dr. Nathan King, author of The Excellent Mind, who was in Cleveland recently for a series of events with Tri-C students, alumni, faculty, and staff. This conversation continues the theme of those events: what does it mean to be an intellectually virtuous person, why does it matter, and how can we inculcate intellectual virtue in ourselves and others?

Holly Ordway is one of the world's leading J. R. R. Tolkien scholars and a friend of Cuyahoga Community College. Dr. Ordway is the author of the 2023 book Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography, and on this episode of More Human she joins Dean Jordan for a conversation about some of the ways in which Tolkien's faith informs the world of The Lord of the Rings, why Tolkien is worthy of our attention, and more.

Kari Gunter-Seymour is the poet laureate of the great state of Ohio. On this episode of More Human, she talks with Dean Jordan about her life and career, Appalachian culture, Ohio poets, and why poetry matters. She also offers some practical advice on approaching poetry for people who are unsure how to engage with it.

Is it okay for doctors and nurses to "hasten death"? That is, if a patient is terminally ill and wants to die, should medical professionals be able to help them do so? Tri-C philosophy professor Sam LiPuma has co-authored a book on this topic, and on this episode of More Human, he joins Dean Jordan for a spirited but civil discussion about it. If you're looking to gain a better understanding of the main issues at play in debates over euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and MAiD, this conversation is a great place to start!

If you're interested in hearing what it's like to be a student in Tri-C's Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Scholars Academy, this episode of More Human is for you! Recent graduates Lydia Lax and Derek Yost join Dean Jordan to talk about their experience at Tri-C and the Mandel Scholars Academy's recent trips to Oxford, England, and Rouen and Paris, France.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the summer of 2023, at least from a news media perspective, was that significant numbers of serious, informed, sober-minded people became persuaded that the U.S. government really may have extraterrestrial spacecraft, or even the bodies of intelligent, nonhuman beings, in its possession. In this truly "out there" episode of More Human, Dean Jordan talks with philosopher and UFO-interested layperson Steve Brown about whether we should believe this is true, what it means to be "critically open-minded," and what the existence of intelligent nonhuman beings would mean for our understanding of our place in the universe. The presentation by Dr. Brown that inspired this podcast conversation ("Philosophy Professor Being Critically Open-Minded about Aliens") can be viewed online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LELPrDnuMuE&t=1118s

Dr. Timothy K. Eatman is the inaugural dean of the Honors Living-Learning Community and Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University—Newark. Among many other leadership and consultancy roles, he serves as a member of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Humanities Center's National Advisory Board, and he recently joined Dean Jordan for a discussion of his own life and work, the role of the humanities in confronting social challenges, news ways of approaching honors education and the role of higher education in addressing racial issues in America. The episode of PBS Newshour in which Dean Eatman's work at Rutgers—Newark is highlighted can be watched at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/at-this-college-academic-excellence-requires-passion-for-the-social-good, and the Langston Hughes poem "I Dream a World," which Dr. Eatman shares during this episode, can be read online at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/at-this-college-academic-excellence-requires-passion-for-the-social-good.