Eminent philosopher to visit St Andrews

Paul Ricoeur, hailed as one of the most distinguished and influential minds of the last Century, is to give a public lecture at the University of St Andrews.

Already well-known in Scotland as a former “Gifford lecturer”, Ricoeur is speaking at St Andrews for the first time. He will deliver his lecture – History and the representation of the past – at 5.15 pm on 31 May 2000 in School III of St Salvator’s Quad, St Andrews.

Series organiser Professor Paul Gifford said, “In welcoming Paul Ricoeur, we are probably welcoming the lecture series’ most prestigious visitor to date. As a philosopher who has taught both at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the University of Chicago, Ricoeur tackles the most intractable and fascinating conundrums at the heart of the thinking and discourse of the whole range of modern disciplines, from psychology through social anthropology to literary criticism and theology. At issue on this occasion is memory and the science of history. Can we disentangle remembering, telling our own story about the past and knowing what was?”

The lecture is being given as part of the year-long programme “2000 Years: Faith, Culture and Identity in the Common Era”. Co-sponsored by the University’s Institute of European Cultural Identity Studies, Centre for Philosophy and Public Affairs, Department of Social Anthropology and the School of Divinity, the series is funded with the help of the Gifford Lectureship Fund. An associated seminar, followed by a session with the Theology and Imagination group, will be held on 1 June 2000 at 10 am in the Senate Room, Parliament Hall, South Street, St Andrews.

ENDS

NOTE TO EDITORS:- You are invited to send a reporter/photographer to EITHER event. Further details can be obtained from Claire Grainger – contact details below.

Issued by Beattie Media on behalf of the University of St Andrews For more information please contact Claire Grainger on 01334 462530, 07887 650072 or email [email protected] Ref: gifford.3/standrews/chg/19may2000