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The Languages, Philosophy and Speech Communication Student Symposium is this Friday (April 17) from 3:30-5:00.  There are presentations from all areas of our department, including two philosophy sessions.  Please plan on attending!

3:30-4:30 in Old Main 326:  Mark Rasmuson “Conflict and Harmony in Plato’s Republic”; Ben Siler “On Berkeley’s Master Argument”; Jonathan Chambers “Locke and Identity”

4:45-5:45 in Old Main 326:  Daniel Tate “Heidegger and Rilke”; Jon Adams “Mormonism and Postmodernism: Parallels and Departures”; Soren Rasmussen “Heidegger and John Paul II on Technology and Labor”

 

Read more here.

We discussed Rene Girard today in the contemporary euro class.  Girard is best known in literary criticism circles, but his work should be of interest to philosophers.  We discussed, in particular, his ‘anthropology of religion’ and the scapegoating mechanism.  Here is an article that gives a nice summary of Girard’s view and then applies it to the Cross.  What is interesting for those interested in pomo philosophy is how Girard abandons the transactional ‘economy of exchange’ found in ordinary substitution theories of atonement and makes room for an an-economic understanding of the Cross that introduces a new ‘logic of the gift’.  An appropriate topic on Good Friday.

The Fountain is sponsoring an essay contest for graduate and undergraduate students. More information can be found here. Check out the various suggested topics. The organization looks a bit goofy to me, but it’s big money (up to $2,000)

If you read the article mentioned below, see this response in cartoon form.