Thursday, September 24, 2009

Reflections and Plans

Good evening, my fellow young philosophers. For our first meeting, tonight went fairly well. Next meeting I will post some topics of discussion up here on the blog as well as some resources for further learning. I think we should try our best to avoid trite arguments for or against Judeo-Christian religion, since this club could very quickly turn into the "let me show you how I know the Bible is right or wrong" club. What do you guys think?


This is an article by David Brooks that questions whether or not philosophy is necessary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/opinion/07Brooks.html


I read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse for English this summer, and like Buddha, the protagonist believed that we should get rid of all of our desires in order to feel peace (which seems like it contradicts the middle path). Can this be achieved? To quote Aldous Huxley:


"A man's a creature on a tightrope, walking delicately, equilibrated, with mind and and consciousness and spirit at one end and body and instinct and all that's unconscious and earthy and mysterious at the other...the only absolute he can ever really know is the absolute of perfect balance. The absoluteness of perfect relativity. Which is a paradox and nonsense intellectually. But so is all real, genuine, living truth-just nonsense according to logic. And logic is just nonsense in the light of living truth. You can choose which you like, logic or life."

Thoughts?

Thank you,

Jack

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

First Meeting

Dear Reader,

The League's first meeting is Thursday the 24th of September at Goode Co. Taqueria at 7:30. Mr. McClure will be present to answer questions and promote discussion. If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post.

Best,

Jack

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Season's Greetings

I hope everyone's summers have been successful and fruitful. Speaking of fruit, the leaves on the trees around us will soon have difficulty photosynthesizing and will turn umber in hue because, as you all are aware, summer is coming to a close, and autumn will soon be upon us, bringing with it the 2009-2010 school year. The potential for philosophical discourse and dinners is palpable in the air. I recently met for lunch at Goode Co. Taqueria with our founder, Dakota Klaes. We talked about his experience as a first year Philosophy/Political Science major at Vanderbilt, and discussed the future of the League. There was talk of t-shirts, decoder rings, monogram polos, and matching tattoos. I hope that those of you who are interested enough in the League to read this blog are also willing to help represent the League at Culture Fest, Chili Cook-Off, and any other events where I may need your help. This year is going to be a lot of fun, and we will reap what we sow, so let's sow seeds of dedication, involvement, assiduity, and inquisitiveness.

Jack

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness

I was going to buy this dvd set

http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=726788

but then I found a google video version of it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2808374571100926940&hl=en

this is the first episode, you can find the rest under the "more from this user" tab

jack

Monday, February 9, 2009

d'souza v. hitchens

for all of you young philosophers that were at our last meeting, here is the debate between Dinesh D'souza and Christopher Hitchens to which Mr. McClure referred.

http://www.isi.org/lectures/flvplayer/lectureplayer.aspx?file=v000187_cicero_102207.flv

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

just checking in...

Mr. Steinhart and myself were thinking about having a meeting sometime during interim term, since you all will undoubtedly have time on your hands. Feel free to suggest a date. Some topics I was planning on discussing were sources of morality (who is to say what's right and wrong? is it worthwhile to deconstruct everything like that?).

i wish you all good cheer, and hope to see you at the next meeting.