The Fordham Philosophers’ Society, generally identified on campus as “PhilSoc,” started as a typical, but uneventful undergraduate philosophy membership. The affiliation, initially based in 2014, consisted of roundtable and guide club-esque discussions about varied philosophers. The membership usually pulled in, at most, a dozen undergraduates to a small classroom for weekly conferences with like-minded people who had a pre-existing ardour for philosophy. Fortunately for Fordham college students, the core curriculum requires philosophy programs to be taken, which in flip helps the membership develop as a result of college students are aware of rudimentary ideas discovered from their lessons. Nevertheless, COVID would show to be a change for all of us, together with PhilSoc.
The “Publish-Covid” reintegration interval at Fordham, coupled with modifications in membership management and route, led to a speedy improve within the membership’s membership and curiosity on campus within the final two years. Headed by Mac McCormick, the Fordham Philosophers’ Society excised earlier boundaries that left newcomers cautious of philosophy’s sophisticated vocabulary. Displays turned extra accessible with out shedding their fervor or route. Memes, humor, and relatable language had been additionally included extra closely into the membership to create a cushty atmosphere. Shy college students in a philosophy classroom usually discover it troublesome to take part in discourse, however by means of PhilSoc’s extra relaxed strategy to the self-discipline, many members have been capable of finding a group the place they will speak candidly about philosophical concepts with new buddies. Over the previous two years, the group started to develop and actually blossom. Membership membership grew to round 80-100 members per assembly, with the society having to maneuver from our small classroom to a big lecture corridor.
Our weekly Friday conferences haven’t veered from their unique path all an excessive amount of, with PhilSoc usually sustaining its undergraduate student-led enchantment. At every assembly, a pupil volunteers prematurely to current on a philosophical matter significant to them, historically past what is roofed within the undergraduate curriculum. Matters vary from normal discussions of classical and up to date philosophers to associated present occasions corresponding to synthetic intelligence ethics, ecology, and xenofeminism. This distinctive format grants college students the liberty not solely to pick out the content material they want to talk about but additionally to find out the style of its presentation. The shows, subsequently, vary between vividly eccentric to stone-cold severe, with some extra lecture-based and others centered on producing group discussions and full of life debate.
Past the big lecture corridor’s weekly Friday conferences, PhilSoc has many retailers for college students to interact in additional thorough discussions and help in mission growth and creation. Philsoc holds a weekly studying membership extra akin to a graduate studying group, wherein the studying membership contributors are the first drivers of what’s learn and mentioned throughout conferences. College students delve into texts from Baudrillard to Shestov, studying about their concepts, the context surrounding them, and the way their ideas may be utilized to our lives.
An thrilling growth of our previous Spring semester was our membership’s first in a single day retreat. The group acquired funding from Fordham College to go on a retreat to our college’s upstate New York property to delve deeper into the philosophical self-discipline. Headed by retreat chief and director of operations Jackson Saunders, pupil retreat leaders developed shows and actions that fostered a larger understanding of mysticism, the theme of the retreat. We explored authors corresponding to Bataille and Lacan and their rationality in confronting the unknown. The weekend was spent attending shows led by undergraduate and graduate college students and interesting in actions designed to stimulate mental progress and foster a private connection to the fabric and one another. Individuals engaged in group reflections, meditation, and an artwork workshop. Not solely does PhilSoc intend on making this occasion annual, however final 12 months’s retreat additionally impressed different pupil organizations to host related packages.
On the subject of student-led creation, final semester, the Fordham Philosophers’ Society additionally launched the primary annual undergraduate philosophy publication of Fordham College, Ontophage. Combining the phrases ontology and the suffix “phage,” Ontophage embodies a self-replicating being. The publication, led by coordinator Nicole St. Jacques, is totally written, edited, and designed by college students, culminating in an anthology of unique, inventive, and informative works, all submitted by individuals from our membership and the broader Fordham philosophy division.
Ontophage is on the market to learn on the publication tab of our membership’s website.
“PhilSoc” has a deep dedication to encouraging college students of numerous outlooks and backgrounds to interact with philosophy enticingly and inclusively. College students are inspired to share and take pleasure in their very own and every others’ distinctive experiences with out worry of judgment or condescending and patronizing backlash. Our future targets embrace reinventing the narrative behind who can and can’t entry philosophical dialogues—we all know that our undergraduate tradition requires these concepts greater than ever. The PhilSoc group believes that by placing philosophy and mutual care on the forefront, we are able to uplift each other. On this upcoming semester, we’re planning to share our dedication to accessible philosophical dialogue with native excessive faculties throughout the Bronx. By way of our Philosophy Pupil Youth Outreach Program, we hope to domesticate the identical curiosity, and a love of philosophy that our membership continues to instill within the Fordham group.
Studying philosophy is extraordinarily essential to grasp the world round us and ourselves. It’s an avenue of progress and introspection. PhilSoc has used philosophy to rework individuals’s subjectivity by shining a lightweight on concepts and points related to our technology. The expansion of PhilSoc has moreover sparked a progress in philosophy as an instructional self-discipline at Fordham.
Our membership wouldn’t have grown as a lot because it has prior to now 12 months with out the help of our unimaginable membership advisor, Dr. Crina Gschwandtner, and our retreat leaders from the Philosophy Division Graduate Research, Christian Halstead and Tore Levander.
William Johnston
William Johnston is the Fordham Philosophers’ Society’s Vice-President. He’s a fourth 12 months pupil at Fordham College at the moment majoring in Philosophy and Environmental Research.
Jackson Saunders
Jackson Saunders is the Fordham Thinker’ Society’s Govt Director. He’s majoring in Physics and Philosophy.
Nicole St. Jacques
Nicole St. Jacques is the Fordham Philosophers’ Society’s Publications Co-Coordinator. She is majoring in Psychology and minoring in Organic Sciences and Bioethics.
Zein Mera
Zein Mera is the Treasurer of the Fordham Thinker’s Society. He’s majoring in Laptop Science, minoring in Philosophy, and can graduate in 2026.
Andrew Lind
Andrew Lind is the Fordham Philosophers’ Society’s Publications Co-Coordinator. They’re majoring in philosophy and graduating in 2026.
Drew McDonald
Andrew “Drew” McDonald is the Fordham Philosophers’ Society’s Public Relations Officer. They’re majoring in American Research and Political Science and graduating in 2026.
Ok McFadden
Ok McFadden is Fordham Philosophers’ Society’s Occasion co-Coorinator and a junior majoring in Communications and Anthropology.
Caitlin Finch
Catherine Each is the Occasion Coordinator of the Fordham Philosophers’ Society, the Undergraduate Philosophy Membership at Fordham College.
