What constitutes a heroic act? Dr Patrick K Dooley, a Fulbright Fellow at NTU's School of Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS) and an eminent American scholar, shares a philosophical analysis at a public seminar.

Nineteenth century American novelist and journalist Stephen Crane is regarded as an important figure in American naturalism. His body of literary work helped set the course of American fiction and poetry in the twentieth century, where he defined his characters with sharply focused comments and vivid images, shocking his readers with new and often disturbing ideas and perceptions.

At a seminar titled "Why Philosophers Need Literature: Stephen Crane on the Varieties of Heroism", Dr Dooley, a world-renowned expert in philosophy and American Culture, discussed Crane's work, which has opened up large areas of study and offered profound and striking instances of behaviours for philosophical analysis. The seminar on 9 April was organised by the Centre for Liberal Arts & Social Sciences (CLASS) at HSS. 

During his lecture, Dr Dooley examined Crane's exploration of exceptional conduct in his signature novel, The Red Badge of Courage, which depicts the American Civil War from the point of view of an ordinary soldier. Dr Dooley also looked at ethical problems raised in Crane's short stories, The Veteran and The Mystery of Heroism, and moral issues dramatised in his powerful novella The Monster.

Interest in philosophy and American culture
Dr Dooley is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at St Bonaventure University. He has published four books and more than 80 articles and book chapters in the general area of philosophy and American Culture. His main interest lies in philosophical themes, particularly ethical issues, in American Literary realism and naturalism – a literary period contemporaneous with his philosophical specialisation – and the classical American pragmatists, especially William James. His most sustained effort in this area of philosophy and literature is The Pluralistic Philosophy of Stephen Crane, published in 1993. Dr Dooley, who is also the bibliographer for Stephen Crane Studies, has, for the past 20 years, been the editor of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy newsletter.

Established in 2006, CLASS aims to facilitate and encourage both interdisciplinary and discipline-specific humanities and social sciences research at the university. Through organising activities such as seminar series, public lectures, workshops and conferences, the research centre provides an effective platform for interaction and exchange among local and international scholars from diverse disciplines.

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