Lifelong Learning at Swarthmore
A Message from the Director I am delighted to announce the new Lifelong Learning classes for the upcoming academic year. This fall, Richard Eldridge, Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Swarthmore College, will teach a class entitled, “The Philosophy of Film.” For the spring semester, a course on Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Age is planned.
I would like to thank you all for your great support of LLS in the past years and hope to see you again this year in what promises to be captivating and entertaining classes.
For a detailed description of “The Philosophy of Film,” please read the announcement below.
–Hansjakob Werlen
Fall 2025 Course “The Philosophy of Film ” with Richard Eldridge, Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Swarthmore College
Film is the major original art form of the twentieth century, with broad and deep appeal to both mass and high art audiences. Why is this so? Which devices of the construction of photographically produced films have made movies so important to so many people? How are some films important as art in relation to twentieth-century life? Can movies still help us to grasp our existential conditions more fully?
In this course, each week articles or book excerpts that address these questions will be paired with a major film, available for streaming online. We will consider films by Truffaut, Eisenstein, Hitchcock, Huston, Capra, Godard, Herzog, and Almodovar.
This virtual class will be held on the following Wednesdays at 7 p.m. ET: Oct. 8, Oct. 15, Oct. 22, Oct. 29, Nov. 5, Nov. 12, Nov. 19, and Dec. 3.
Registration will open in mid-September.
Richard Eldridge is Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Swarthmore College and a Lecturer in Philosophy at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has published widely in the history of analytic philosophy, especially Wittgenstein and Cavell, and in Aesthetics and German Idealism, especially Hegel. His most recent books are Werner Herzog: Filmmaker and Philosopher (Bloomsbury, 2019) and Images of History: Kant, Benjamin, Freedom, and the Human Subject (Oxford, 2016). He is the general series editor of Oxford Studies in Philosophy and Literature and the volume editor of Stanley Cavell (2003) and The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature (2009).Questions? Please contact Mary Carr at mcarr1@swarthmore.edu
More About Lifelong Learning Courses taught by senior or emeriti members of Swarthmore College faculty and other experts. Courses offered in each of the divisions of the College: humanities, social sciences, natural sciences/engineering. No grades, no academic credit, just learning for learning's sake. Open to everyone: alumni, their adult family, friends, Swarthmore College staff, and all friends of the College are welcome. Virtual classes are not limited in number of participants. Questions? hwerlen1@swarthmore.edu . For all other questions, contact Mary Carr at mcarr1@swarthmore.edu .
Thank you for your support of Lifelong Learning at Swarthmore.
