University of Toronto Philosophy Course Union - PCU

PCU MOVIE NIGHT: IKIRU

Hi Everyone! Join the PCU on Wednesday, February 1st at 7pm in Robarts Room 3025 for a screening of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Ikiru (To Live). The film follows the life of a bureaucrat who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and is forced to grapple with how he has chosen to live his life, and how he will spend his last days. The film engages with topics such as modern work and labor, family life, death, and how to live a meaningful life.

LOWER-YEAR SOCIAL AND TRIVIA NIGHT

Hi everyone! The PCU is excited to announce that our Lower-Year Social/Trivia Night will be taking place at 6:15-8pm on Tuesday, January 24th at the Cat’s Eyes in Victoria College’s Goldring Student Center, located at 150 Charles Street West (NOT the Goldring Athletic Center, directions included below).

Trivia topics will be fun facts about philosophy and famous philosophers! Prizes (gift cards) will be awarded for most questions answered correctly. After trivia, there will be fun activities including board games, air hockey, pool and more. Pizza and light refreshments will also be provided!

Though the event is tailored to lower-year students, upper-year students are still very welcome to join (and win prizes)!

Please reach out to the Philosophy Course Union if you have questions or concerns.

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday night!

PHILOSOTEA #3: ANIMALISM AND PERSONAL IDENTITY

Hi everyone! I am happy to announce that our first Philosotea of 2023 will be on Wednesday, January 25th from 3:00-4:30pm in JHB100. For those who are unfamiliar, Philosoteas are informal discussions hosted by the PCU where students can come and share and debate their positions on various issues within philosophy. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

This Philosotea’s topic is “Animalism”. No prior familiarity with the topic is required and all are welcome.

Animalism takes our identity to be that of organisms/animals constituted by material parts, which compose you by virtue of the bio-chemical relations between those material parts. Animalism’s account of personal identity is thus inherently materialistic and physicalist We will discuss arguments for Animalism from Eric. T Olson and then try to come up with any objections against Animalism. Moreover, we will also discuss questions of personal identity in general: both the question as to what we are and also the conditions that allow the persistence of identity over time, alongside the strengths and weaknesses of Animalism and other theories of personal identity in answering those questions.

Hi Everyone!

The ethics of life and death have frequently been in the news lately, whether it is the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Covid, or Canada’s expansion of medically assisted dying.

If you are interested in getting a chance to hear great presentations and engage in discussion about key questions in the ethics of life and death, then make sure to join the PCU this Friday from 1-3pm in JHB100 for our annual Bioethics Symposium! This year’s topics is “The Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy of Abortion and Other Matters of Life and Death”.

We will have three speakers who will present fascinating talks on topics in Bioethics, followed by questions periods. Refreshments will also be provided.

This year’s speakers are:

1) Donald Ainslie
(2) Wayne Sumner
Topic: "Abortion: What Matters (and What Doesn't)"
(3) Steven Coyne
Topic: “Morgentaler: Civil Disobedience in Health Care”

We hope to see you there!

Philosotea #2 - The Principle of Sufficient Reason

Hi Everyone! I am happy to announce that our second philosotea will be on Tuesday, November 1st from 4:30-5:30pm in JHB100. For those who are unfamiliar, Philosoteas are informal discussions hosted by the PCU where students can come and share and debate their positions on various issues within philosophy. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

The principle of sufficient reason is defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as the"principle stipulating that everything must have a reason, cause, or ground". A key feature of rationalist philosophy, the principle has also been subject to many critiques and reinterpretations from the eighteenth century until today. Come join us to discuss the history, nature, and validity of this principle. No prior familiarity with the topic is required and all are welcome.

[PHANTOMS AND PHILOSOPHY]

Calling all Witches and Whiteheadians, all Ghouls and Gödelians, all Zombies and Žižekians, and all other philosophers with a taste for the eerie!

The Philosophy Course Union, in collaboration with the Religion Undergraduate Student Association, is excited to announce that this year’s annual Phantoms and Philosophy Halloween event will be held at 6pm on Tuesday, October 25th in JHB 100!

Each year three speakers join us to give three bone-chilling talks on topics related to the scarier side of philosophy. This year our speakers are:

Dr. Douglas Campbell: “Ghosts, Magic, and the Supernatural in Plato”

Filip Andjelkovic: “Network Culture and Its Discontents: Tracing the Online Unconscious”

This talk will be a look at the role of the unconscious as it is replicated and accelerated within digital media networks - not least of all through algorithms that act as a kind of nonnconscious cognition that thinks for us, proliferating affectively viral content, encouraging “transgressive” behaviours/beliefs, and perpetuating divisiveness. Although the aim of these algorithms is to foster increasingly predictable online behaviours, what is also altered is our capacity for autonomous self-reflection, our relationship with the unconscious.

Filip will frame this topic - terrifying as it is on its own - within an analysis of Clive Barker’s “Midnight Meat Train.”

Third speaker T.B.A

JHB100 is located on the ground floor of the Jackman Humanities Buidling, and is located to the right of the main doors. This building is wheelchair accessible.

PCU MOVIE NIGHT - AMERICAN PSYCHO

Hi Everyone!

The PCU is excited to announce that our second movie night of the year will be taking place on Wednesday, October 19th at 7:15pm in the Robarts Media Commons Theater (Robarts Room 3025). This time we will be screening Mary Harron’s 2000 horror-thriller American Psycho. The film follows the deranged businessman Patrick Bateman as he spirals into a spree of violence and depravity. Often considered to be a modern cult classic, the film has spawned countless essays, youtube videos, and memes.

UPDATED FALL ELECTION, GENERAL MEETING, AND PUB NIGHT

The Philosophy Course Union (PCU) invites you all to join us on Friday, September 30th at 5:00pm in Jackman Humanities Building Room 100A for our Fall Election and General Meeting!

We will be hearing speeches from our candidates, voting on our lower year representative and proposed constitutional amendments, listening to any feedback or suggestions you all have for the year ahead, and enjoying some snacks! After that is our Pub Night, but more on that below.

All St. George campus students who are enrolled in at least one philosophy half-course equivalent (0.5 FCE) during the current academic year, and/or are enrolled in a philosophy program or joint program offered by the Philosophy Department are eligible to vote and run.

Interested in joining the PCU executive?
We have a number of positions available:
-Co-President (1)
-Chair of Underrepresented Philosophy (1)
The Chair of Underrepresented Philosophy organizes one academic seminar devoted to sharing underrepresented voices and topics in philosophy.
-Bioethics Liaison (1)
The Bioethics Liaison organizes one academic seminar of interest to bioethics students per year. The liaison also keeps us in contact with bioethics students and ensures that the PCU is representing their interests. All candidates for this position must be enrolled in at least one bioethics course or program this academic year.
-Visual Arts Director (1)
The Visual Arts Director is in charge of making graphics/posters for the PCU’s events as well running our movie nights.
-Treasurer (1)
The Treasurer is responsible for preparing the PCU’s budget in collaboration with the rest of the executive teams as well as organizing and documenting the PCU’s purchases.
-Lower-Year Representative (1)
If you are a First Year or Second Year student enrolled in at least one philosophy half-course equivalent (0.5 FCE), consider running for lower year rep! Candidates will declare intent at the election and are welcome to present a max 2-min speech. The lower year rep is tasked with running the annual lower year event.

Candidates can declare their intent to run at the election, or via this form: https://forms.gle/NWV6oK3koRd8Anwt6 All candidates who wish or require their speech to be read for them must fill out this form.

Pub Night
After the election at 7pm we will head over to the Duke of York for our pub night! All are welcome to attend and we encourage you to come even if you do not attend the election. While drink ticket registration has closed, those who did not register may attend, and will have priority access to any extra or unclaimed drink tickets.

If you have already registered to attend you will receive two drink tickets. If you have registered but will not be attending, please let me know via email at [email protected]

NEWS ABOUT THE PCU FALL ELECTION

Hi all!

I just wanted to let you know what in addition to Lower-year Rep. and Bioethics Liaison we will also be accepting candidates who wish to run for either Chair of Underrepresented Philosophy or Co-President (only only Co-President position available).

You can declare your intent to run either at the election or via this form: https://forms.gle/NWV6oK3koRd8Anwt6. If you wish or require that your speech be read for you at the election, you must indicate this via the form. All Candidates should prepare a speech of around 1-2 minutes.

Philosotea #1 - Ecoterrorism: How far can environmental activism go?

Hi Everyone! I am happy to announce that Philosoteas will be starting up again this year - this time in person. For those who are unfamiliar, Philosoteas are informal discussions hosted by the PCU where students can come and share and debate their positions on various issues within philosophy. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Some philosophers have argued that civil disobedience is the only permissible form of protest. But when activism is concerned with everyone’s shared home - planet Earth - should we allow for more severe action? In our first Philosotea of the year, we will be discussing ecoterrorism as a form of environmental activism that uses violence (often property destruction) to make a point e.g., How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2021/2022). Come join us on Tuesday, Oct 4 from 4-5pm in JBH 100 to chat about this topic!

FALL ELECTION FOR LOWER YEAR REP, GENERAL MEETING, AND PUB NIGHT

The Philosophy Course Union invites you all to join us on Friday, September 30th at 5:00pm in Jackman Humanities Building Room 100A for our Fall Election and General Meeting! We will be hearing speeches from our candidates, voting on our lower year representative and proposed constitutional amendments, and listening to any feedback or suggestions you all have for the year ahead. All St. George campus students who are enrolled in at least one philosophy half-course equivalent (0.5 FCE) during the current academic year, and/or are enrolled in a philosophy program or joint program offered by the Philosophy Department are eligible to vote.

Interested in joining the PCU executive? If you are a First Year or Second Year student enrolled in at least one philosophy half-course equivalent (0.5 FCE), consider running for lower year rep! Candidates will declare intent at the election and are welcome to present a max 2-min speech. The lower year rep is tasked with running the annual lower year event.

We are also looking for a Bioethics liaison, so if you are enrolled in a Bioethics program, please consider joining us. The Bioethics liaison is tasked with running a bioethics academic event in the second semester, and with fostering collaboration between the PCU and bioethics students.

After the election at 7pm we will be heading to the Duke of York for our Fall Pub Night! Join us for free drinks and good company. If you wish to attend and want drink tickets, please fill out the form below (limited to 22 responses). If the form has reached 22 responses, or if you do not want drink tickets, you are still more than welcome to attend!

https://forms.gle/iXEnAL3y4c4HetVC6

PCU MOVIE NIGHT - Breathless (À bout de souffle)

Hi Everyone! I am excited to announce that the PCU will be hosting in person movie nights again! We plan on having these approximately every three weeks.

Our first movie night will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 20th at 6pm in the Robarts Media Commons Theater (Robarts Room 3025). This time we will be screening Godard's 1960 crime drama Breathless (À bout de souffle), preceded by a brief introduction to the film by a member of our executive committee.

We hope to see you there!