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An announcement from Dr. Sherlock:

“This fall I am going to do a reading group where we will read together and discuss one of the greatest works of philosophy in the 20th century: Bernard Lonergan s.j.’s Insight. It’s theme is how you can get from a study of the phenomenology of human knowing to the metaphysics of true understanding. When he was a visiting professor at Harvard I studied with him. On Amazon and Barnes and Nobel the book costs about $30. We will begin meeting the second week of the term. If you are interested email me with the times you are available and I’ll pick a time that works for most people.”

Contact Dr. Sherlock if interested here: Richard.sherlock@usu.edu

I [Dr. Kleiner now speaking] had some encounters with Lonergan’s legacy while at Boston College.  Lonergan was a professor there late in his career and Boston College now houses a large Lonergan Center and hosts annual Lonergan Workshops and is generally the hub of Lonergan work in this country.  Though I am no expert on Lonergan, I think Lonergan is one of the most under-read and under-rated philosophers of the last 100-200 years.  In addition, Lonergan is not neatly camped with either “analytic” or “continental” philosophy and philosophers are both sides of this “divide” work with Lonergan.  So I think there is a lot of potential with him in being a bridge builder as well (appealing to the clarity of the analytics but the profundity of the continentals).  So this reading group will be well worth your time.

This, in anticipation of Kleiner’s class this fall (hat tip to Brian Leiter):

Hello, returning students! We hope you had a good time in the Cave this summer, and are anxious to return to the sunny contemplation of the Good. There will be a couple of Philosophy Club events right away this term, and we wanted to let you know about them and invite you to participate.

The first is our college’s “Light on the Hill” event on Monday, August 27th, beginning at 7:30 p.m. This is a fun ceremony to start the year’s journey, and Philosophy Club will have a table at the event. It would be great to have as many of us there as possible.

The second is USU’s “Day on the Quad” on Wednesday, August 29th. Again, Philosophy will have a table, and we will need to have some people to be at the table.

If you’d like to help out and be involved, please send a note to our Chief Club Guardian, Justin Solum, at justin_solum(at)yahoo.com.

I thought some of our reflective and creative essay writers might be interested in this opportunity –

Call for short writings or essays: Lessons learned from My Parents.

Did you ever experience a moment with your mother or father that changed your life, a lesson that influenced all other decisions and helped you become who you are today? At Familius we hear about these stories all the time and have launched a new, crowdsourced book project to celebrate these moments and share these lessons.

We invite you to participate by sending us an essay that shares the lesson you learned and how it has impacted you and helped you throughout your life. These lessons could be profound or simple, tragic or funny. We all have stories and our lives are improved through sharing.
Simply enter your essay in the online form below along with your information.

http://www.familius.com/1lessons-from-my-parents

Essays will be reviewed by an editorial team through October 31, 2012 and the contributors whose submissions are included in the new book Lessons From My Parents: Silent and Spoken will receive the advance eBook free and a special discount on the print edition, scheduled for release this December.
Entry length is up to you. If the lesson is short and sweet then submit it short and sweet. If it is longer send in an essay. Poetry is also acceptable. If you are a parent, you can also share how you apply the lesson today or how you use it with your own children. We look forward to reading your stories.

News from the USU Religious Studies front:

Dr. Wijitha Bandara has been hired to replace Dr. Chris Haskett.  Dr. Bandara will teach some previously scheduled courses (RELS 1010 and RELS 3020 Introduction to Hinduism).  But he will also teach a new course, Women and Buddhism (RELS 4910-005, MWF 1:00-1:50).  This course is brand new and was not listed when you registered last spring.  Check it out if you are interested.