Professor Carlos Mellizo

About the Speaker: Professor of Spanish and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wyoming, is the author of several books including Nueva lntroducciόn a Francisco Sánchez "EI Escéptico ", En torno a David Hume, La Vida Privada de John Stuart Mill, and David Hume: Escritos Epistolares, among others. He has translated into Spanish works by Hobbes, Berkeley, Locke, Hume, Burke, Mill and Veblen. Professor Mellizo is a member of the board of directors of the Ibero-American Association of Utilitarian Studies.

"Francisco Sanchez of Tui (1550-1623) and the New Science"
Brief Abstract: Born in Tui, Spain, around 1550, Sánchez studied medicine at Montpellier and became professor of philosophy in 1585, and later of medicine in 1612, at Toulouse, France, where he died in 1623. His major work, Quod Nihil Scitur, was written in 1571 and published in 1576. Sánchez has been seen as one of the first men of the Renaissance who was able to see science in its modern sense. Many fragments of the Quod Nihil Scitur and other of his lesser works directly refer to the process of knowledge, and reveal the innovative will of one who never resorted to using the argument of authority as ultimate proof.

Friday, April 1, 2005 at 4:10 p.m. in Hoyt Hall, Room 215

"Hume and Institutional Theory"
Brief Abstract: Hume’s notion of “habit” as the main guide of human life applies to both individual and collective patterns of behavior. Prof. Mellizo argues that a link can be established between Hume’s philosophy of custom and the basic principles of  institutional theory. Such a connection has been, in fact, suggested by contemporary economists such as Vernon Smith and others, who see in Hume the origins of today’s broadly accepted dichotomy between “constructive” and “ecological” reason, essential to institutional thinking.  Interestingly enough, Hume himself was concerned with the main institutions of his time. The question is whether in his  reflections on the subject he was consistent with the foundations of his own philosophy of belief

Friday, April 2, 2004 at 4:10 p.m. in Hoyt Hall, Room 215

Funding for this lecture is provided by the Department of Philosophy.