Author: Huenemann

Curious about the ways humans use their minds and hearts to distract themselves from the meaninglessness of life.

Philosophy Club and Valentine’s Day

Our meeting this week will be tomorrow, Monday Feb 12, at 5:30 PM-6:30PM in Old Main 006. There are two reasons for the different time and place: Valentines being on Wednesday and because the philosophy department is interviewing faculty candidates this week. (You can drop in at Old Main 202 tomorrow from 2:00-3:00 PM to meet Dr. Sophia Stone and 1:30-2:30 PM on Friday to meet Dr. Glenn Trujillo, as it said in the email I forwarded last week)

For the meeting, we will be having an informal party about the philosophy of love. There will be pizza. We will get to know each other and discuss questions about love in small groups. 

If you want to read something about the philosophy of love to inform your discussion (and see a somewhat humorous example of people giving speeches about the nature of love at a party) here is a copy of Plato’s Symposium: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1600/1600-h/1600-h.htm

Hope to see you there! – from President Jack

Meet our philosophy job candidates!

Over the next week we will be interviewing three philosophers to be added to our faculty at USU. We have set aside some times for students to drop in and have informal chats with them, get a sense of their approaches to philosophy, their backgrounds, and so on. If you have the free time, please come visit with us!

Here is the schedule for drop-in meetings with the philosophers:

Friday, February 9
Dr. Michael Otteson – 1:30-2:30 p.m., Main 202 (conference room)

Monday, February 12
Dr. Sophia Stone – 2:00-3:00 p.m., Main 202 (conference room)

Friday, February 16
Dr. Glenn Trujillo – 1:30-2:30 p.m., Main 202 (conference room)

Philosophy Club, Wednesday 4:30, M201

Hey all!

Our next meeting is Wednesday, Jan 31, at 4:30PM in Old Main 201. We will be having a structured discussion about authenticity. We’ll ask the question: should we strive to be authentic? 

Attached are two readings. One is part of Ethics of Authenticity from the philosopher Charles Taylor, which is meant to help us understand why authenticity is generally valued in contemporary culture. You only need to read sections II and III. The other is Jean Paul Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism, a philosopher who prized authenticity.Both are about 14 pages long– if you only have time for one, read Sartre’s. Here are some questions I think it would be good to keep in mind as you read before we discuss.

  1. What is authenticity?  
  2. Do you or your friends care about “being authentic” “expressing yourself,” or “being true to yourself”? If so, what sort of activities fall under these terms for you?
  3. Do you think the culture of authenticity animates student life at USU today as much as Taylor thought it did in the 80s?
  4. How are freedom and authenticity related in Sartre?
  5. Should we strive to be authentic?
    • Does valuing authenticity lead to subjectivism, narcissism, or relativism?
    • Might it ever be good to be inauthentic or artificial?
    • Is an ethic of authenticity necessarily atheistic?
    • What do Taylor and Sartre think about their critics?

Jack Leonard

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