Dessert and Discourse with Kevin
Spring 2008 Schedule

Each meeting will be an informal gathering and discussion where we will all be challenged to look at the topic in a critical and thoughtful way. You will have an opportunity to express your opinion as well as an opportunity to have your opinion challenged.

In addition to fine conversation, there will be fine desserts provided by various members of the TAMS staff. Each week there is a discussion we will be meeting at 9pm in Mac Cafe

1/24 - Understanding the Allure of Soulja Boy
To anyone with an ounce of musical taste, the artistic value of Soulja Boy's break out song released this summer is laughable. Setting back the progress of rap music to the day 5 year olds unwrapped their casio keyboards and mumbled lyrics over a pre-set beat during the Christmas of 1981, the lame aesthetics of Soulja Boy are only overshadowed by his revolting lyrical content. Yet for all this, intelligent and seemingly morally reared TAMS students insist on dancing to and finding great joy in this song. Why? We'll spend the evening digging into this peculiar anamoly.

2/7 - What is Happiness?
It seems true, as Aristotle puts forth in the beginning lines of his Ethics, that all of us pursue happiness as our chief purpose in life. It also seems true, however, that there are several possible ideas of just what happiness is that exist. Furthermore, today it is fashionable to hold to a notion of relativism when it comes to human happiness: the idea that there are several different ideas of human happiness and no one of them can claim to be any better than the other. We will explore our own opinions on this topic and see if we can't leave this discussion as happier people!

2/28 - What is Science?
The enormous success of science over the past 300 years seems to have earned it a special high level of authority in the mind of our society. And why shouldn't it have such status? After all, it has proven its worth time and time again by making our lives seemingly more comfortable and survivable. But with this success and our culture's submission to it comes profound changes in how we view the nature of truth. Ask your average college student where you go to find "hard truth" on a college campus and it seems the only option resides in the science departments. Is this assumption justified? What exactly can science answer and what issues is it of no use? As the next generation of scientists, it would be good to ask philosophical questions as to the nature, purpose, object, and extent of science.

3/27 - What makes Humans different than Animals?
The question who am I? has been on our minds ever since our species began thinking. Our answer to this question, however, has changed drastically over the course of human history. From understanding ourselves as the offspring of dieties to viewing ourselves as chance occurrences that differ only in degree from other animals, the history of our self-conception as well as our current conception is profoundly varied. We will spend an evening exploring this question.

4/17 - An Evening at Kevin's House
Come to an evening devoted to talking about pretty much anything at Kevin's House.