We had a wonderful time at our January Think & Drink. A great crew and very thoughtful dialogue always makes for a fun night! To begin our eve, several questions were thrown into the ring, including:
- Given the advancement of technology and the changes in the world that have taken place because of it, have our basic needs changed? In other words, should our existing framework of basic needs (e.g., shelter, safety, etc.) be expanded to include new needs that were non-existent before the rapid rise of technology? What would those “needs” even be? And are we right to consider them “needs” or are they something else?
- Is there an actual “American” culture? or are we too schizophrenic to be a culture?
- Can you learn without choice? What does it mean to learn (as a process vs. acquired knowledge)?
- Where does love come from? Metaphysical? Biological? What do we even mean by it?
- Why “ought” we to do anything? What sort of the theories of motivation exist?
- Why is our reaction, as people, to take things so personally as opposed to seeing an opportunity for change and improvement? What is it that we are so attached to? What is masculinity?
The Question We Selected as a Group
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Why is our reaction, as people, to take things so personally as opposed to seeing an opportunity for change and improvement? What is it that we are so attached to? What is masculinity? (In response to the Gillette video)
Some Things Explored & Unpacked in the Process
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What is masculinity?
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What is the difference between ‘categories’ and ‘boxes’ (relative to how we catalogue data and navigate the world)?
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What would it look like to live a life without identifying to/with anything (categories, boxes)? Freeing? Catastrophic? Is it even possible?
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Would less rigid categories result in a different way of seeing/looking at what masculinity and femininity entails? Is the firmness of categories the issue?
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What role do personal identity, ego, insecurity, shame, and pride play in all of this?
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When we are looking to identify, are we always doing so in terms of “I am X” or “I am not X”?
Thank you to the Philosophy Learning & Teaching Organization (PLATO) for supporting philosophy in the community and helping us bring activities like these to the Helena community!
