Forum engages multiple campuses

By Olivia Obineme

Published: Sunday, April 5, 2009

It was not a reoccurrence of the Age of Enlightenment, but many students engaged in sharing ideas at the Undergraduate Philosophy Conference Saturday.

The Philosophy Forum hosted the spring conference and invited undergraduates not only from Towson’s campus, but also from neighboring schools as well. The colleges that made the guest list included Johns Hopkins University and St. John’s College.

The Student Government Association sponsored the event.

Conference organizers collected essay submissions to be reviewed and voted on the grounds of philosophical content and reasoning.

Philosophy Forum president Paul Kelly, who organized the conference, said he enjoyed this spring’s event because of the variety of schools involved. Students spoke about various subjects from discussing “possible worlds” to “solitude,” according to Kelly.

“A lot of the topics were papers that were submitted for classes. They were all different,” he said.

Though the majority of the speakers came from Towson, Hopkins sophomore philosophy and linguistics major Cuong Nguyen was excited to be part of such an event.

“It’s very good to express your ideas and see what everyone thinks about,” he said.  “One of the most important things to know as a philosopher is that it’s not about arguing or debating each other. It’s about understanding what the world is and what you would talk about in the world as you see it.”

In Nguyen’s paper “Uttering the Mystical: An Analysis of Wittgenstein’s Tractarian Ethical Thought,” he talked about “the good” in philosopher Wittgenstein’s beliefs.

“There are some things that can be talked about and some things that can’t be talked about. And we need to know the difference between what we can and cannot talk about,” Nguyen said.

“So the paper talks about why we can’t talk about the good, but why we should still talk about the good.”

According to Kelly, 50 people filtered in and out throughout the event, which began at 10 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m.

The audience listened to seven philosophers, including keynote speaker Richard Bett from Hopkins. Holding a joint appointment in Philosophy and Classics at the school, Bett’s talk was titled “Socratic Ignorance.”

The ancient Greek philosophy expert shared his view of Socrates’ statement, “I only know that I know nothing” and he also discussed whether the life of a philosopher was desirable.

The Philosophy Forum will be publishing a journal by the end of the semester, according to Treasurer and Publishing chair Daniel Murphy.

The organization holds meetings every Tuesday in Linthicum Hall room 305 from 5 to 7 p.m.

Courtesy of The Towerlight