Philosophy Walk: Wildlife Recovery & Ethics

In this walk led by philosopher Christopher Preston, we’ll explore five questions regarding how we think about the wild. Our group will meet at the Helena Valley Reservoir and explore these questions on a walk-about totaling roughly 3 miles roundtrip with stops for conversation & more. Sunday, June 11th from 9:30am-12:30pm. Learn more & RSVP here!

Continue reading

How Did We Get Here?: Free Will

Debates about “free will” crop up in a wide, wide variety of areas: In discussing law and punishment, we ask whether the defendant acted “of his own free will.”  In physics and metaphysics, we wonder whether the future is fully deterministic, or whether our choices might affect the course of things.  Theologians of various religious traditions ponder a variety of problems over how to reconcile human freedom with divine providence.  And researchers in neuroscience and the philosophy of mind worry over the legacy bequeathed to them from Descartes: how, if at all, can the mind even be connected to the body?  What, if anything, do these widely varied conversations in divergent fields have in common, besides the name “free will”?  By looking at the history of this much-contested concept in this month’s session of “How Did We Get Here?”, we can begin to peel back the layers! Learn more & RSVP here!

Continue reading

How Did We Get Here?: Labor & Work

We often take “labor” and “work” as synonyms, describing an often-difficult process that’s required to “get by” in life, or even to “make our living.” Yet there’s also a strong contrast between the demanding-yet-fulfilling “work” and drudgery, as well as other complicated dances between labor and leisure, work and recreation, action and contemplation, “liberal” and “servile” pursuits. These complications have been viewed very differently across the centuries. In this installment of “How Did We Get Here?” we’ll explore this and then some! Learn more & RSVP here.

Continue reading