RALEIGH TAVERN PHILOSPHICAL SOCIETY LECTURE TRADITIONS
1. There should be no protracted discussion until the presenter has finished delivery of the lecture. Applause upon completion, whether one agrees or disagrees with the content, is a sign of collegial appreciation of the energy and scholarship undertaken by the presenter. It also indicates that the lecture has been formally accepted and that the presenter is now open for a period of constructive questioning.
2. Papers
should try and be approximately 20 to 30 pages in length (double-spaced) and
delivery should endeavor to take between 30 to 50 minutes. Elaborate footnotes are unnecessary but
prominent sources and referenced scholarship should be placed parenthetically
within the text. Excessive wording and
length of text tends to detract from the main theme and can be limiting in
regard to post-lecture discussion.
3. Lectures
are to be prepared on computer discs or in other ways conducive for inclusion
on the web site.
4. It
is customary to take a ten-minute “break” between the delivery of the lecture
and the debate of its content. The
total time spent delivering the lecture and the critical discussion that
follows should approximate a two-hour plus period of time. Remember the post-lecture discussion and/or
debate should be a key feature of our organization’s mission.
5. The
post-lecture discussion should be spent correcting printed errors in the text,
extending specific lecture points, engendering new ideas inspired by the
lecture and developing contrary arguments in the best tradition of the Socratic
method.
6. Topics
for lectures should be discussed (in the pre-lecture business period) at least
two months in advance for acceptance by the membership. Topics should be ones the presenter has been
interested in developing but has not hitherto been afforded the time or place
to do so. Wide-ranging historical or
global perspectives are encouraged as well as interpretations of current events
and public policy debates. Attempts
should be made to keep solely personal perspectives to a minimum.
7. The
name of our organization—The Raleigh Tavern Philosophical Society—is derived
from the actual Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, where, during the
Revolutionary period, policy, politics, and political theory were hotly
contested. With this tradition in mind,
we of the membership endeavor to highlight political debate as one of our most
important charges.
8. Membership
has been structured to include four academic positions alongside those of four
non-academics in order that theory and practicality may match and merge into
more substantive debates and experiences.
The model for such an arrangement is the John F. Kennedy Institute of
politics at Harvard University.
Remember that guests should be limited as indicated by our bylaws and
not allowed to participate unless called upon by the sitting members.
9. At
the beginning of each new president’s term the outgoing president will formally
present his or her successor with a framed embroidered rendering of the actual
Raleigh Tavern. This symbol of our organization will be kept in safekeeping by
the sitting president until he or she relinquishes that office at which point
it will be passed on to the next encumbent.