Is Smerdyakov a Human Being? | Prof. Stephen Meredith

The Thomistic Institute

Thomism, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Catholic, Philosophy, Catholicism

4.8 • 873 Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2024

⏱️ 69 minutes

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Summary

This lecture was given on October 11th, 2023, at Harvard University.

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About the Speaker:

Stephen Meredith is a professor at the University of Chicago’s Departments of Pathology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Neurology. He is also an associate faculty member in the University of Chicago Divinity School. He has published more than 100 journal articles, focusing on the biophysics of protein structure. Much of his work has been the application of solution and solid-state NMR to the study of amyloid proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease. He has also published articles on literature and philosophy in diverse aspects of medical humanities and bioethics. His teaching includes courses to graduate students in biochemistry and biophysics, medical students, and undergraduates and graduate students in the humanities, including courses on James Joyce’s Ulysses, St. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Dostoevsky (focusing on Brothers Karamazov), Thomas Mann and David Foster Wallace. He is currently working on a book examining disease and the theological problem of evil. Other current writing projects include a study of James Joyce and the problem of evil.

Transcript

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0:34.4	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast. Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:43.7	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
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0:59.5	Thank you, Reed. Thank you, Hyden.
1:01.5	Thank you, Reed, for that lovely introduction.
1:04.4	And thank you for the Thomistic Institute, and thank you all for being here.
1:11.6	Okay, so I am going to talk about Samir D'akov and in the context of the brothers Karamazov and the problem of evil.
1:24.6	So this is a favorite topic of mine, not only mine, of course. In fact,
1:33.2	when people speak about this topic, the usual focus, if you're talking about Brothers K and
1:39.2	the problem of evil, the usual focus is Yvonne's tirade against God in three particular chapters of the book.
1:48.0	And I am going to say something about that.
1:50.2	But I want to take a somewhat different angle on this problem.
1:55.0	I want, after making a few general comments about Yvonne, I want to veer into this odd and endlessly fascinating character
2:05.5	of Smerd Yacob. And I'm going to assume that everybody has read the book or at least has some
2:12.1	familiarity with it. So after briefly highlighting a few points about Yvonne's rebellion against God,
2:20.1	I will switch to Smyrd Yaakov, who has a lot to do with Yvonne.
2:25.8	And a hint about the view is the subtitle of this talk,
2:32.2	whether Smyrd Yaakov is unloved by God.
	...

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