Giuseppe (on the left) and Anthony (on the right) recording a session of their podcast, For the Love of Sophia!
Carrying Philosophical Discourse Beyond Academia
“Doing philosophy,” so to speak, is a valuable thing. It fosters curiosity, helps us understand reality and our place within it, provides us with a framework for evaluating arguments and making effective decisions, aids in our search for meaning, and can transform us in ways beyond the scope of what we can know in any given moment. A world lacking in this activity would give us cause for concern, while a world full of this activity would allow us to flourish (or at the very least would allow us to move away from whatever the opposite of flourishing is). Adopting these kinds of beliefs is basically a precondition for pursuing a career in philosophy. It would seem to follow, then, that philosophers dedicate most of their time to maximizing the reach and application of philosophical discourse… right?
Despite the widespread belief in our field that engagement with philosophy is crucial for living “the Good life,” experience has shown us that many within our discipline limit themselves to purely “academic” pursuits detached from “low culture,” “the everyday,” or dare I say it — “the actual world with actual people.” (As one of Anthony’s colleagues once noted in horror about someone in their graduate cohort, “Dude, he didn’t even know who Matthew McConaughey was! How can you not know who Matthew McConaughey is?!”) This deeply concerns us. It is for this reason that we try as hard as possible to orient our program around the belief that “doing philosophy” should not be limited to the classroom or elite circles. But how does this kind of thing manifest?
We started something called the Public Philosophy Project about a year ago, which we often describe as an organization dedicated to spreading philosophical discussion beyond academia and into everyday life. Under the command of this guiding principle, we’ve done a few things. We started a podcast entitled “For the Love of Sophia!” that anyone can access on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Soundcloud. We planned a series of public events — philosophical “walks” at a local state park, philosophical discussions at a local library. And last but not least, we maintain an undergraduate philosophy club at Middlesex College, where we both teach. Although the podcast and public events are “grander” in scale, it is the philosophy club that presents us with a task that is perhaps most important — maintaining a community by means of direct interaction.
A Brief History of Philosophy… Club
The Philosophy Club at Middlesex College was officially born in the Fall of 2016. After a few weeks of classes, the students in Giuseppe’s Intro to Philosophy sections seemed particularly interested in the topics discussed in class. Put candidly, they would not let him go on to his next class because they still wanted to discuss the topic of the day. So, Giuseppe proposed to create a club where they could discuss in a more comprehensive and relaxed manner all the philosophical questions that they could handle! We learned later that there had been, in the past, numerous incarnations of informal philosophy clubs led by adjunct professors, but they did not survive the winter (or the summer). They were more of a seasonal thing than a true club. Since 2016, though, with the help of Student Life at MC, the Club has been active and in great shape — meeting every week of the Fall and Spring semesters. The meetings are usually hosted in a small classroom that is located in the building where the History and Social Sciences department is housed.
So, What is This All About?
Our philosophy club is, in fact, broken up into sub-clubs. We have the “regular club” and the “reading group.” They both meet every other week, on an ABAB-type schedule. Meetings officially last for an hour, but they often wind up lasting longer because we tell students that they can stay in the room after we leave. There has been more than one occasion where we left a club meeting, hung out for a few hours in Giuseppe’s office to record podcast sessions, then proceeded to go home for the day only to see students still in the classroom or to hear them in the hallway arguing about some hyper-specific philosophical issue (“The ingredients of a cake, even though they’re needed to make it, are not essential properties of cake-ness!” or “Is a fictional character like Captain America an example of a universal or a particular?”).
At regular club meetings, we sit in a circle (I know, I know) and discuss a topic that was announced earlier in the week. The topics are decided at the first meeting of the semester — we’ll get students to fill up the board with 15 or so topics and then have them vote on their top 5 for the semester. Giuseppe or Anthony typically starts the meeting by asking some general question (“Who here considers themselves an animal lover?”; “What do you think science is?”; “What do you think of when you hear the word ‘justice’?”). Afterwards, a student will raise her hand to give some kind of initial response. Another student who raises her hand then responds to that student. And before you know it, we’re off to the races. As a general rule, we like to let the students hash things out themselves to see where it goes. However, we do have to step in occasionally to direct the conversation when it goes astray in terms of topic or to ask a follow-up question for stimulation. Reading group meetings are basically the same thing, but with the addition of us slowly reading and discussing selections from a particular text together (some of the most recent ones include the Phaedo, Chalmers’s The Conscious Mind, Okasha’s Philosophy of Science: A Brief Introduction, and Wolf’s “Moral Saints”).
While it sometimes gets a bit repetitive for us (and we try to steer the students in different directions), it has been pretty instructive to observe the reasoning employed by the students to pick a topic, and to understand what topics our students consider interesting and important. Our students seem to be attracted mainly by ethical topics (no surprise there), and by topics that deal with the intersection of philosophy, science, and technology. While the choice of ethical topics is not a surprise (and some topics are omnipresent, right Nihilism’s fans?), what has been surprising at times is the specific topics that students want to discuss within ethics. The very first Philosophy Club discussion, for example, had the students making sense of ableism and its ethical repercussions. The students were so into it that we ended up devoting our first reading group to a series of Philosophy of Disability readings. The group of topics that dealt with philosophy, science, and technology, on the other hand, resulted in discussions regarding consciousness, truth, the value of science and the arts, the self, and the role of politics in scientific discovery, among other things.
Since we do not require students to have any prior experience with the topics discussed, many of them feel free to participate. And while the terminology they use is not always on point, it is interesting to see them develop their reasoning and try to make their argument. Sometimes it gets messy: between imprecise use of terms, some circular reasoning, pre-formed opinions, and willingness to say whatever comes to their mind, we can have moments that resemble more of a social media exchange than a philosophical discussion. And that is when we – the instructors – come into play. Since we do prepare for the meetings (mainly by refreshing our memory about specific topics or simply by drawing a plan of discussion for the meeting to come), we are always ready to rein the discussions back to where they belong, clarify terms (or more often ask the students to clarify their own), and uncover whatever preconceived notions students have brought with them at the meeting.
Our Philosophy Club also hosts a number of regular events. Every year, we put together a “Philosophical Film Series” where we meet several times over the course of a few weeks to watch and discuss a selection of movies. This past semester, we watched Her (Spike Jonze), A Serious Man (The Coen Brothers), and Big Fish (Tim Burton) as part of a series about finding meaning within the human condition. We also host a yearly “Philosophy Symposium” that (to our continual astonishment) draws a 100+ audience. This event typically consists of student presentations and at least one faculty panel. The last panel resulted in us arguing with science faculty over the nature of what Science (and Math) actually is… so that’s always fun.
We have been doing this since 2016, which means that the club has been “anew” three times already, which means that we have started over three times already. We have been lucky enough to have students join us every semester. We have never experienced (not even during the pandemic-ridden 2020) a deserted club meeting or a lack of interest from the students. If anything, issues have come from different “areas”. Some students, for example, join the club believing that being there will grant them some extra points when it is time to grade them. Needless to say, they are mistaken. We do some recruitment in class – obviously – but we clearly state that while the club might be a good place to get a better grasp of some concepts that we might discuss in class, there is no connection with participating in the club and the grade that they will get in class. Unfortunately, some students seem to be immune to this sort of information. There is, however, another issue that we deal with often. We have already mentioned that some students come with the baggage of preconceived notions, and often removing this baggage or just breaking the news to them that they have such baggage has proven difficult. Some feel offended, others refuse to accept that they have some form of pre-judgements regarding certain topics, some just disappear and never show up again. To be honest, though, the great majority of them are fascinated with the fact that we can have real discussions about topics that they believe to be taboo outside of the club. They feel like conspirators, and they might be right.
Cui Prodest?
Students can benefit in a number of ways by being part of the Philosophy Club. It allows them to expand upon and apply the kinds of things we discuss in class in a more spontaneous social environment, which seems to invoke multiple skill-sets. Since there is less structure at meetings than there is during class time, there’s this interesting dynamic created where the stakes are at once lower (because they are in charge) but also higher (because they are in charge). On the one hand, the more “relaxing” nature of the conversation results in authentic interactions with their peers (and us), which in turn allows them to situate philosophical content within a more “real” context. On the other hand, there’s a kind of “healthy pressure” always floating in the background because they have to learn how to articulate their thoughts clearly and navigate the situation effectively on their own, without relying on an authority figure to solve their issue for them. Beyond that, we believe the students benefit from being part of a community where they can trust others enough to open-up and explore those weird thoughts that they can’t explore elsewhere. At the end of the day, it’s all about growth.
Looking towards the future, we will work — first and foremost — to maintain what we already have. We cannot hope to build without tending to the foundation. Beyond that, we hope to expand upon Club activities as part of the Public Philosophy Project. When things start looking a bit more “normal,” we’d like to get back to hosting in-person events: communal discussions at local institutions, a food drive where we hand out grocery packages that contain philosophical literature (“Food for Thought”), and a series of “Think and Drinks,” where we get together with students (who are 21+) to hang out, talk philosophy, and… well, drink. Our goal is to take this community building exercise as far as it will go. But on a base level, we also just can’t wait until we’re able to be in the same room as students again. There’s a kind of indescribable “spark” that’s been missing this past year — one that is often essential in igniting the personal transformation that this “philosophy stuff” is ultimately all about. Fingers crossed.
Giuseppe Rotolo
Giuseppe was born, raised, and "philosophized" in Palermo, Italy. He realized that he wanted to be a philosopher in high school, right after his philosophy professor introduced to the class Parmenides' ideas. He published his first book at 25, and completed his Ph.D. at 28. At age 31 he moved away from the sandy beaches of Sicily and landed in the green and cold eastern part of Pennsylvania. Shortly after his arrival in the U.S. he found employment in Edison, NJ, as a philosophy professor at Middlesex College. He thinks that he is living some version of the Good Life.
Anthony Celi
Anthony was born, raised, and “philosophized” in New Jersey -- and he’ll likely never leave. He first realized that he wanted to study philosophy after finding himself reading the Euthyphro in an Ethics class as part of his undergraduate institution’s general education program (“oh, so this is the kind of stuff that I’m interested in…”). But he didn’t realize that he wanted to pursue a career in philosophy until he enrolled in a seminar on Heidegger’s Being and Time. Oddly enough, philosophy was Anthony’s backup plan. He dreamed that he would find success in the prog-rock band he fronted, but here he is writing this article instead. He currently adjuncts at several schools in NJ, with Middlesex College being his home-base, hoping to secure a full-time position (call me).
