Contents. Xavier University of Louisiana Philosophy Department. Letter from the Department Head. Newsletter / Spring 2016

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1 Xavier University of Louisiana Philosophy Department Newsletter / Spring 2016 Letter from the Department Head! Student Spotlight Department Events Contents Philosopher s Club XU Debate Team Awards & Honors Faculty Achievements The Xavier University department of philosophy is happy to announce the publication of its first ever newsletter. It is an exciting time for the department! We currently have more students than at any time in recent history: 10 majors and 9 minors. Check out the interview with Paul Joseph (p. 3) to see how one student decided to major in philosophy. Our recent graduates are off to a great start in their post-xavier careers, as the feature story on 2014 graduate Adia Wallace illustrates (see p. 2). The department organized a number of successful events last semester (see p. 5 for details), and has big plans for the future. For example, this summer we will offer a unique service learning mini-course called Aristotle in New Orleans to high school students in the SuperScholar EXCEL program. - Dr. Paul Schafer

2 PAGE 2 Student Spotlight Adïa Wallace: From Xavier to Harvard & MIT Recent alumna Adïa Wallace returned to Xavier last semester to talk with current students about life after college, and how her choice to major in philosophy led her to a masters program at Harvard. She has now accepted a job as Program Assistant at MIT Office of Engineering Programs where she will work with youth programming. Congratulations, Adïa! In Fall 2010, I entered my freshman semester at XULA as a Philosophy major. I'd convinced my mother that I was doing this to become a lawyer -- Philosophy students tend to perform pretty well on the LSAT, and so I argued that the curriculum would prepare me for law school. However, I soon deviated from my law school aspirations during sophomore year, declared a minor in Computer Science, and went on to begin a career in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Through Philosophy, I was challenged to be openminded and intentional in all my pursuits. Most programs and jobs did not look for Philosophy majors per se, so I had to be extra creative when I applied, and when I was accepted, I had to align the soft skills I would learn to my end goal. I participated in many different leadership roles either on campus or as a representative of XULA, including the Bard Urban Studies Program in New Orleans, the Kemper Scholars Program, Xavier Debate Team, Peer Dean Association, Google Community Leaders Program, the American Association of University Women-LA, the SURE internship program with Educational Testing Service, and the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program. Through these roles and my studies in Philosophy, I gained several key soft skills such as communication, problem solving, perseverance, and creativity. I was also able to meet really interesting people and live in places I never thought I'd be! Even more important than these experiences was for me to complete my undergraduate studies in an academic department that is both intimate and wholly committed to the success of each of its students. Whether it meant mentorship or the chance to de-stress over a movie after a long, arduous semester, the XULA Department of Philosophy was the family I needed to get through my undergraduate years. Not everyone can say that they know all of their department's professors and that their professors know them! I am glad that I'm able to use these same relationships in my professional life and that they are genuine. All of it makes college worth even more.

3 PAGE 3 Student Spotlight An Interview with Paul Joseph Paul Joseph is currently a Junior with a double major in Biology/Pre-Med and Philosophy. Here s what he has to say about the experiences that brought him here: Q: Did you know that you wanted to be Pre-Med when you came to Xavier? A: Yeah, I knew around 8th grade that I wanted to be a general practitioner. Both of my grandparents were doctors and I really admired their enthusiasm for their profession and I liked all the work that they did outside of being doctors. They were very supportive parents and active people in Columbus, Ohio during the 1960s. I just liked everything about them. Q: Why choose to be a general practitioner? A: I hear a lot of people tell me that it s a great time to be a general practitioner they re in high demand. But I didn t really need that as a reason. My motivation came from being able to show people their self-worth through your concern for their well-being. As a general practitioner, you see a wide variety of people. You get to form relationships with them, and as a result end up being a very integrated member of the community. Q: So, did you know anything about Philosophy before you got to Xavier? A: I used to think it was kind of pretentious (laughter)! But that impression went away immediately when Dr. Berntsen approached me at orientation and posed the famous Trolley Problem. I just remember thinking that it was very creative, very interesting. And just his overall presentation of the kind of questions we would address in a philosophy class was intriguing. Then, when I took my first class in Fall of my sophomore year I fell in love with all the different readings. Q: What class did you take? And what was your favorite reading? A: It was Dr. Dunson s Great Books in Philosophy class. And, I think my favorite reading was Plato s Apology because of Socrates. Just seeing him dissect arguments it was also the humility of it. He was never verbose, but just asked great questions and was able to dismantle his opponents arguments. He didn t do it for recognition or gain, but from a desire for knowledge. Continued on following page

4 PAGE 4 Continued from previous page. Q: Has philosophy helped you develop any skills that you use in everyday life? A: It s really important when you argue with someone else to remember that you can t reduce that person to a label. I learned this lesson when reading Booker T. Washington. I had always written him off as this super conservative thinker. But then, when I read the Atlanta Exposition Address, I could appreciate his argument, without completely agreeing with it. That s important in everyday life, to remember that other people are human beings too, and to try to understand their reasoning. In politics, this skill is very practical and important. Personally, I think this is what s wrong with bi-partisanship in the United States. What I found out through philosophy there is a difference between real debate and simply presenting your own opinion. Most people aren t concerned to understand others points of view, they just want to voice their opinion, incrementally louder, until they ve silenced everyone else. Q: Ok, now which philosophy class has been your favorite thus far? A: I ll say 19th/20th Century Philosophy. That class well, there is a phase after you take a philosophy class where you say to yourself, I think I ve got it now! Which sounds harmless, but it s very dangerous because you can t wait to show off what you learned in the 5 or 6 readings you remember from that class. You think, ok, that s all philosophy is. But 19th/20th was eye-opening to me. We read about ideas and concepts that I had never heard of before. That was a very humbling class, and I just wanted to know more. Q: Should students be intimidated by how difficult philosophy can be? A: Well, I think philosophy should come naturally to us. It s very practical. When you think about being a kid kids have this natural curiosity. When you re a kid you ask questions all the time. And when you get older you don t really stop thinking, even though you re not always able to find the right words to ask the questions you want to. So when you come to a philosophy class, you ve already been doing it, but now there is structure and it requires a lot more discipline. Q: Do you see your two majors as complementary? Do they fit well together? A: Absolutely. I ve taken two philosophy classes that directly relate to biology Health Ethics and Philosophy of Science. Both address concepts that are important to Biology. For instance, in Health Ethics, we read philosophers who try to settle on certain definitions, like what constitutes life, what constitutes death, what constitutes autonomy. There are no easy answers, but you have to rely on a definition when making decisions. I m going to be faced with situations as a doctor where these questions from Health Ethics are important. And in general, I don t think I ll ever stop using philosophy. I might not write any papers but I ll still be using philosophy, as a doctor and just as a human being. These are the classes that make a person really well-rounded in terms of how you think, what you think, and how you approach others. It will, in a profound way, inform my choices and my justifications for those choices.

5 PAGE 5 Department Events A Rulebook for Arguments Dr. Berntsen led the department s majors and minors in a workshop on creating and critically evaluating arguments using the text A Rulebook for Arguments. The workshop began with an introduction to the fundamental rules of effective argumentation and continued with an examination of the most common types of deductive and inductive arguments, as well as the rules appropriate for evaluating them. Throughout, the students practiced applying the rules by creating arguments of their own. Movie Night The department held its regular end-of-semester celebratory movie night during finals week this past semester and it was a great success. We watched the Disney Pixar film Inside Out, ate great pizza, and enjoyed a discussion of the role emotions play in defining personal identity! Philosophy opened up my view about what it means to be a complete person...i felt empowered to venture out of my comfort zone and discover how to think critically for myself. - Kevin Lam, Double Major in Biology/Pre-Med and Philosophy Philosopher s Club Philosopher s Club is an informal group dedicated to discussing philosophical issues and current events. Both majors and non-majors are welcome to participate. Join us every Friday at 3 PM in the common area on the 2nd Floor of the UC Building. Past topics include: How do I know it s real? Identity, Reality, and the Descartes Effect What Should be Done with the Confederate Monuments in New Orleans? Is College for Everyone? The Rise of Donald Trump: What Should We Think about this? Lethal Injections and the Death Penalty Smoking Bans and Soft Drink Limits Being LGBTQ

6 PAGE 6 XU Debate Xavier Debate Team, coached by philosophy professor Dr. Dunson, had a great year in 2015! The team hosted a city-wide middle school debate tournament. Debate team members served as assistant coaches at Warren Easton High School. They traveled to compete in two tournaments in Louisiana. Finally, the team held two well-attended public forums on campus. Debate is less about being right and more about gaining a bigger perspective. Debate is one of the few activities that allows you to look outside yourself without fear of being judged, because no one can rightfully judge you for what you can prove. - Alexis Vance, XU Debate Team President Awards & Honors Phi Sigma Tau We had five new inductees into the International Honor Society in Philosophy, Phi Sigma Tau, in 2015: Javian Baker, Christian Davis, Sheldon Maurice, Brittany Peters, Quynh Vu. Congratulations to these students on their excellent academic records in philosophy! Students interested in this prestigious Society may contact Xavier s chapter advisor, Dr. Bayer. Faculty Achievements Philosophy of Science is definitely my favorite, and the best class I have taken over my 5 years at Xavier. Especially, as a scientist, the course allowed me to evaluate myself, my intentions, and my future in the field of chemistry. - Corey Arnold, double major in Chemistry and Philosophy Thora Bayer has a forthcoming article: "Socrates' Profession," Sophia Philosophical Review, VIII: Jim Dunson s co-authored book, entitled Citizen of the World: Suffering and Solidarity in the 21st Century, recently received the Silver Prize from the Catholic Press Association. He is currently working on another book length project, Ethics at the End of Life, under contract with Lexington Books.