Rebecca Goldstein, philosopher, MacArthur Fellow and author of nearly a dozen best-selling books of fiction and non-fiction, will speak at Eastern Kentucky University on Wednesday, Oct. 11.
Famed for her ability to intertwine imaginative storytelling with complex philosophical questioning, Goldstein will present “The Transformation of the Ancient Greeks and the Making of Philosophy,” as part of EKU’s 2017-18 Chautauqua lecture series. Free and open to the public, the lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in O’Donnell Hall of the Whitlock Building. It also serves as the annual Ron Messerich Lecture in Philosophy and Religion.
A native of White Plains, New York, Goldstein graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College, where she received the Montague Prize for Excellence in Philosophy. She went on to receive her doctoral degree in philosophy from Princeton University, where she was also awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship and a Whiting Foundation Fellowship.
She later returned to her alma mater as a philosophy professor. While there, she wrote her first novel, “The Mind-Body Problem,” which was met with much critical and popular acclaim. She went on to write nine more novels, including “Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction,” which was named the best fiction book of the year by The Christian Science Monitor and among the top 11 of the year by The Washington Post.
Goldstein is an elected member of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal. In 2008, she was designated a Humanist Laureate by the International Academy of Humanists, and was award an honorary doctorate by Emerson College.
She published her latest and most popular book, “Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away,” in 2014. The book received multiple positive reviews from The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic and several others with The Washington Post citing it as one of the best books of the year.
The Goldstein lecture will be sponsored by EKU Honors and the Department of Philosophy and Religion.
For more information about the Chautauqua lecture series, visit www.chautauqua.eku.edu or contact Chautauqua Lecture Coordinator Erik Liddell at erik.liddell@eku.edu.