The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought was founded in 1941 by the historian John U. Nef, the economist Frank Knight, the anthropologist Robert Redfield, and Robert M. Hutchins, then President of ... About the Committee
About the Committee
Work with the Committee is not limited as to subject matter. Any serious program of study, based on the Fundamentals Examination, culminating in a scholarly doctoral dissertation, and requiring a framework... Graduate Program
Graduate Program

Since students in the Committee have unusual scope for independent study, successful work in Social Thought requires mature judgment and individual initiative. Naturally, the Committee wishes... Admission to the Committee
Admission to the Committee
Latest News and Announcements
Friday, May 18, 2012 at 4:40pm: Richard Velkley on Heidegger and Strauss
The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought
presents a seminar with
Richard Velkley
(Celia Scott Weatherhead Professor of Philosophy, Tulane University)
On
Heidegger and Strauss
At 4:30pm, Friday, May 18, in Foster 505
Participants should read chapters 5-9 and the Epilogue of his Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy (University of Chicago Press, 2011)
Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 4:30 pm: "Formative Fictions: Imaginative Literature and the Training of the Capacities"
Dear Literature and Philosophy Enthusiasts,
We are pleased to invite you to join the Literature and Philosophy Workshop next Thursday, May 10, at 4:30 pm (in Cobb 104), where we will be joined by Joshua Landy, Associate Professor of French and Italian at Stanford University. We will discuss his paper:
"Formative Fictions: Imaginative Literature and the Training of the Capacities"
The paper, to be read in advance, is available on our workshop blog:
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 4:40pm Lurcy Lecture : Art – Experiment – Life By Christoph Menke
The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought announces
The Lurcy Lecture: Art – Experiment – Life
By
Christoph Menke 2011-12 Georges Lurcy Visiting Professor, Professor, Dept. of Philosophy, University Frankfurt/Main
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 4:30 PM Social Sciences 122 (1126 E. 59th Street)
The visit of Professor Menke to the University of Chicago and the Lurcy Lecture are made possible through the generous support of the Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust
Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 4:30 pm Work by Paul Kottman, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the New School
Professor Kottman’s paper, “Romantic Love as the Struggle for Freedom” is taken from the Preface section of his current book project, which focuses on various poetic depictions of romantic love, from Virgil and Ovid to Beauvoir/Sartre and beyond. It will be up in the “workshop documents” section of our website by early next week. (http://cas.uchicago.edu/workshops/literatureandphilosophy/, password "litphil").
Tuesday, April 17, 4:30pm (Breasted Hall, Oriental Institute) Irony and Humanity: A Dialogue Between Jonathan Lear and Alasdair MacIntyre
The Committee on Social Thought The Department of Philosophy and The Lumen Christi Institute
present
February 27, 2012, 4:30pm, Harper Memorial 130 (Location to be determined)
Nef Lecture by Brooke Holmes, Princeton University, on "Sympathy: The Early Life of an Idea."
February 15, 2012, 4:30pm, Stuart 101 (5835 S. Greenwood)
Nef Lecture by Rosanna Warren, Dept. of English, Boston University, on "Max Jacob: A Poetics of Mysticism."
