What happens to logic in an age of pictures? This is the question Dr. Leo Groarke, president and vice-chancellor of Trent University, will respond to in a three-part lecture series, November 10, 11 and 12, as the 2015 Gilbert Ryle lecturer at the University.

Dr. Groarke’s lecture series: Words, Pictures, Arguments will examine the role of visual images in reasoning, argument and persuasion. The series considers, in images, situations in which our traditional emphasis on words – and, since Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, the book – as the proper vehicle for knowledge and discovery are being challenged by digital communication which makes it easier and easier to communicate with images.

“I’m truly honoured to have been invited to be this year’s Ryle Lecturer,” said Dr. Groarke, a well-known philosopher who has published a number of books and many articles on arguing. “I follow a series of important thinkers who have been highlighted in a well-known series that is an important annual event for philosophy in Canada, I hope to use the lectures to engage the community in a series of dynamic discussions.”

The first lecture, Multimodal Arguing: The Drift Away from Words, will be held November 10, 2015 in Lady Eaton College, room 201. The second lecture, A Fork in the Road: Two Ways to Greet the Digital Age will take place on Wednesday, November 11, 2015, in Bagnani Hall, Traill College. The final lecture, Twelve Pinocchios: How Do Cartoons Argue? will be held Thursday, November 12, 2015, in Bagnani Hall, Traill College. All lectures begin at 4:00 p.m. and are free and open to the community.

Dr. Groarke was named Trent’s eighth president and vice-chancellor in 2014. He has studied philosophy at the University of Calgary, Simon Fraser University and the University of Helsinki and received his Ph.D. from Western university in 1982.  In addition to his administrative work, he has been actively engaged in teaching, research, publication, editorial board membership, and conference and institute leadership for many years. His areas of research and scholarly interest include ancient philosophy, higher education, the history of ideas, social and political thought, and "informal" logic. His influential scholarship includes the popular textbook, Good Reasoning Matters!, co-edited with Christopher Tindale, who was a member of the Trent Philosophy Department for many years. Read more about Dr. Groarke at www.trentu.ca/president