Mount Holyoke College’s Philosophy Club has been active for at least 40 years. The origin of the club is lost in history but is both remade by new members and continues historically beneficial practices.
There is no formal advisory position, but department members work to ensure that at least one faculty member shows up to every meeting. The club meets once a week at lunchtime, over pizza. (The way to the philosophical heart and mind is through the belly.) The faculty don’t decide anything during meetings, but sometimes volunteer to present a thought experiment or idea to get the discussion running. Club members organize activities, such as movie screenings or student-led presentations, but meetings are generally opportunities for casual philosophical discussions in a relaxed environment.
Club meetings benefit members in several ways. They get to talk philosophy as discussion leaders. They also make friends with other philosophy majors and non-majors. Sometimes they help each other with essays, and people writing theses often present the work they’re doing, which helps them and is interesting to the other students. The department benefits because the majors form a better social unit. As a result, occasionally, non-majors become regular attendees. The club also keeps the students interested in philosophy and is one way the department uses to foster communication between students and faculty. Part of that communication includes keeping in contact with former club members, who are doing all sorts of interesting things: some are philosophy professors (one at Mount Holyoke), others are artists, scientists, consultants, and more.
One of the unique features of Mount Holyoke College’s Undergraduate Philosophy Club is that the students get to talk philosophically about the political and social issues of the college. In this way, students can see philosophical concepts in action about issues that they both care about and directly affect them. More typical features are club parties, which occur occasionally, and once in a while the club publishes an undergraduate magazine, The Bottleneck. Philosophy Department faculty do no more than pay for pizza and provide advice—there is no formal advisory position, but faculty work to be present at every meeting.
Club members are also strikingly civil to each other. When they talk about sensitive issues, their discussions are sophisticated and critical, and yet calm and circumspect. (We need more fora like this!) Perhaps the most unique feature of the club is its longevity, which, since the club is really run by members, is a testament to the students themselves.
Both Mount Holyoke College’s Philosophy Club and Philosophy Department maintain Facebook pages. Mount Holyoke College’s Philosophy Department’s website can be found here.
Katia Vavova
Katia Vavova is Associate Professor of Philosophy and chair of the Philosophy Department at Mount Holyoke College. Professor Vavova works primarily at the intersection of epistemology and ethics. She is interested in what counts as evidence of our own error and how we should accommodate that evidence when we get it. Some recent work focuses on how we should respond to disagreement with people whose opinions we respect (answer: with humility), and whether our evolutionary origins should make us doubt our moral beliefs (answer: they shouldn’t).
