Vanderbilt University Professor David Wood will lecture on, “Thinking out of the Box,” at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 21 in the Morris University Center Mississippi-Illinois room on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville campus. A reception will precede the event at 4:30 p.m.
The annual event, known as the Fritz Marti Lecture, was named for the late Dr. Marti, an SIUE professor emeritus in philosophical studies. The Swiss-born educator joined the SIUE faculty in 1965 at the age of 71 and taught at various institutions across the United States.
Wood’s areas of interest include “the possibilities of reading and thinking opened up by contemporary continental philosophy and by 19th century German thoughts.” His current projects include “reworking/displacing Heidegger’s treatment of time within fundamental ontology; developing a nonprescriptive posthumanistic approach to ethics; and providing an account of truth that does justice both to its normative, ‘existential’ and metaphysical dimensions.”
Marti grew up in Switzerland and was employed as an iron worker before joining the Swiss Army during World War I. Following his service, he studied mechanical engineering and philosophy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1922 and began his storied teaching career.
He served as president of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and the Southern Society for Philosophy of Religion. Marti also ran a private preparatory school in Ohio and taught art history.
More information about Marti is available through the Oregon State University website.