CLASSICS BUILDING, ROOM 110
1010 E 59TH ST

Working in the fields of both philosophy and environmental studies, David Macauley has dug deeply into the ancient and perennial notion of “the four elements,” tracking them as ideas from early philosophical sources to the twenty-first century.

As one critic writes, Macauley’s book Elemental Philosophy “is an homage to a different and seemingly unfamiliar sensibility in which earth, air, fire and water… animate human thought and action.” Macauley’s ongoing work offers ways to reevaluate how we relate to the natural world and how aesthetics bring us back to environmental questions.

Here, he presents a talk titled “Elemental Beauty: The Four Seasons and the Un-thought Aerial World.”

Co-sponsored by the Arts, Science + Culture Initiative at the University of Chicago.