Bard College Berlin News
Hannah Scharmer ‘21 receives the Seth Benardete Award
Scharmer received the award for a paper titled “A Harmonious Whole Upheld by Difference: A Close Reading of the Myth of Er.” She first became familiar with the Republic, Plato’s text which contains the Myth of Er, during her first year at Bard College Berlin, where it is part of the Core Curriculum. “Thinking back to my first semester, I remember how I, somewhat naively, stumbled into Jan Völker's Hegel seminar, which deeply affected my course of study,” says Scharmer. “It was the atmosphere of Jan's seminars (which I continued to attend almost every semester) that fed into my desire to pursue philosophy, especially the sense that our shared inquiry was like a 'creature' situated in the center of our seminar circle: a ‘creature’ which we could all see, and one which we attempted to understand and nourish and sustain through our contributions.”
The Myth of Er has accompanied her throughout her higher education journey. Scharmer describes this philosophical tale as a "curious moment of philosophy and poetry coming together.” The fact that the Republic concludes with this myth has always intrigued her, prompting her to question the limits of the “unified progression and order of a rational argument.”
“I was drawn to the Myth of Er because I believe that, in a close reading of this ending to the Republic, I could show how Plato's conception of harmonious unity is upheld by a unit of dissonance, or an irreducible difference,” Scharmer explains. As she moves forward with her studies, she says she is “always walking with at least one foot in ancient philosophy.”
Post Date: 10-09-2025