Author: heldke

President Barack Obama delivered a powerful eulogy for South African anti-apartheid leader, first democratically elected president and first Black president, Nelson Mandela. Among the things he said in praise of Mandela, this one stood out to the philosopher: Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the…

  Hey! Get out there and examine your life! It’s World Philosophy Day, and even though UNESCO seems to have stepped away from its sponsorship of the day (perhaps they’re still exhausted from the crazy intensity of last year’s celebrations? Perhaps they decided that ten years was enough?) here at Gustavus, we’re still all about…

Check out how Alex Legeros, philosophy major and bassoonist, is using social media to raise the profile of A Musical Offering, the St. Paul-based music ensemble for which he works as assistant.

A recent NPR story, posted on the existentialist Camus’s birthday, offers a glimpse into the reasons that many people are lured by the siren song of boring jobs…only to realize that they’re, well, boring.  Give it a three minute listen.

Did you miss the talk about Deane Curtin’s year in India, and his work on a project commissioned by the Dalai Lama? You can check out the WEEKLY article here, but even better, you can see the whole talk right here.

Somehow, he doesn’t seem like the birthday-cake-with-a-hundred-candles type, but it IS the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the influential existentialist philosopher Camus. NPR ran an interesting story about him this morning, discussing the reception his work receives in his birth home, Algeria. Check it out here.

   …we philosophers will miss you. From the St. Peter Herald: George Georgacarakos, age 68 of St. Peter, died on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul. Memorial service will be held at 1:00 pm on Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at Christ Chapel on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College. Visitation…

…at this year’s Nobel Conference 49: The Universe at Its Limits. Yes, it’s true. Someone decided it was a good idea to unleash the philosophers of Gustavus upon the Nobel Prize-caliber physicists at this year’s Nobel Conference. Philosophy professor Josh Brown was chosen to host Dr. Tara Shears, professor of physics at the University of…

Moreover, everyone on the philosophy team is an actual philosophy major. We’re just sayin’. And our shirts were fantastic. But, okay, it’s true. We lost. Yes, after five years of easy, breezy victories, the philosophy department was routed by classics today, 7-2. I like to think it was the fact that the game moved indoors.…