H E L E N. S. L A N G

The following feature story appeared in the campus publication Mosaic in February, 1998.

Helen S. Lang

Discovering language and culture in intrinsically interesting problems

A high school senior in search of a college wandered into an elementary epistemology class, taught by Professor of Philosophy Helen S. Lang, that was discussing German philosopher Immanuel Kant and his abstract theory of apodictic judgments. The student's first impression? "It was so weird," Robert V. Toomey '96 later told Lang. "It was like you weren't speaking English. All the students were talking the same way you were talking. You seemed so upbeat and they were incredibly happy." It was at that point, Lang says, that Toomey resolved to attend Trinity, where he would learn "to talk like that and be happy like that."

Today, after excelling as a philosophy and English double major and graduating from Trinity with honors, Toomey is attending Boston University Law School. He, like many other students who major in philosophy, often found his studies to be the ultimate liberal arts experience, Lang says. "Philosophy teaches people to think," she contends. "It teaches them to argue. Whatever they go on to do, it will serve them in good stead."

Lang grew up in New Mexico, where her father was a scientist who worked on the hydrogen bomb project for the Atomic Energy Commission. She credits her father's interest in mathematics with sparking her enthusiasm for the discipline she now teaches. "Like mathematics, philosophy is a kind of solution to very abstract puzzles," she says.

Lang, who holds a doctoral degree from University of Toronto, joined Trinity's faculty 20 years ago and is now chair of the philosophy department. She teaches courses in medieval philosophy, the history of philosophy, and science-related philosophical courses.

Coincidentally, Lang's own reaction to her first encounter with Greek philosophy as an undergraduate was very similar to her student Robert Toomey's reaction to his first exposure. Her reaction was prompted by a puzzling line from Aristotle's Physics II that read, "If you planted a bed and it could sprout, it would sprout wood and not more bed." At the time, Lang says she thought, "who would think of something as weird as that?" She later recognized the line as a reference to Homer's Odysseus, whose bed was made from a tree and, thus was immovable.

So intrigued was she by Aristotle and his line, that she went on to write two books on the philosopher, including one that is scheduled to be published in October by Cambridge University Press entitled, The Order of Nature in Aristotle's Physics: Place and The Elements. She has also just completed a translation of a lost work of the Greek philosopher Proclus, on which she worked with Hobart Professor of Classical Languages Anthony D. Macro. Professor of Philosophy W. Miller Brown describes Lang's recent efforts as "an extraordinary outpouring of exceptionally fine work, the product of a mature scholar reaping the rewards of many years of resourceful and imaginative scholarship."

Philosophy laboratories
In 1995, Lang applied her pedagogical imagination and began a bold curricular initiative. Funded by a grant for curricular innovation from the National Science Foundation, the initiative involves the adaptation of scientific laboratories into the philosophy, modern language, and classics curricula. The effort, says her colleague, Brownell Professor of Philosophy Howard DeLong, is characteristic of Lang. "Introducing labs into philosophy courses so that students could study the science of the times when philosophers lived was Helen's idea," he said. "She not only envisioned the labs, but applied for the grant which allowed others to participate in this interdisciplinary teaching approach. As a teacher, she is demanding and has the respect of her students," he says.

According to Lang, students are drawn to her classes for several reasons. "Students have an opportunity to focus on problems that are intrinsically interesting, such as how one best defines the natural activity of a human. And they get to read the really great works of Western culture.

Precision and passion
Students say one of Lang's strengths lies in her ability to interrelate material. Cari E. Salisbury '98, a religion and Spanish major, was a mentor in Lang's first-year seminar, "Three Trials," which examined real and fictional trials of individuals and government. "When Professor Lang was explaining the concept of civil disobedience as applied to Socrates in Plato's Apology, she was able to relate it to modern democracy," Salisbury says. Despina Konstantinides '00, a philosophy and art double major who took Lang's "Medieval Philosophy" course last semester, says her professor transcended the course's time period and frequently brought the ideas espoused by Aristotle and Plato into class discussions. "Professor Lang interrelates material all the time and relates what we study in class to everyday life," Konstantinides notes. "She's very inspirational because she's so intelligent. Because she is very precise, I've become a better writer. It's clear that she has a passion for teaching."

Although Lang has been at Trinity for two decades, she says she still discovers new insights in the material she teaches. "I read the texts that I teach every time I teach them," she says. "I feel they still yield new things. When I'm teaching, I sometimes set goals for myself. When I teach Plato, I read a certain amount of Greek. When I teach Augustine, I read a certain amount of Latin. In doing this, I find that their personalities come right up off the page."

-Suzanne Zack

 

 

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