The Integrating Activity Seminar
In their final semester students research and write an essay on topics of their choice in Literature, Philosophy, Art History, Cultural Studies, Religion, History, and Anthropology.
Below are short summaries four of the best papers written in 2015. They address ideas of time, individual and communal well-being, death and immortality, human excellence and the history of philosophy. Want to see more? Click on the titles to see the complete essays.
Below are short summaries four of the best papers written in 2015. They address ideas of time, individual and communal well-being, death and immortality, human excellence and the history of philosophy. Want to see more? Click on the titles to see the complete essays.
The Analytic and Continental Divide: A Case Study of Martin Heidegger and Rudolf Carnap
This paper addresses the philosophical and historical reasons for the Analytic/Continental division in the field of philosophy during the 20th century, specifically the mid-20th century around the time of World War II. The philosophical basis for the divide is found in the different meta-philosophical views of either side of the divide, while World War II completed the physical split between them. Rudolf Carnap and Martin Heidegger are used in the essay as emblematic figures of the meta-philosophies of their respective sides of the divide, and their philosophies and historical situations are used as a means of discussing the divide.
Daniel Polillo
Daniel Polillo
On the Dual Quest for a Better Life: How Buddhism and Socratic-Platonic Philosophy Aspire to Individual Excellence.
History tends to mark a clear divide between the ways of the East and those of the West. Yet, within two centuries of each other, both the East and the West produced systems of belief that sought to address major existential questions when they produced Buddhism and Socratic-Platonic philosophy, respectively. This paper compares how these belief systems define human potential and describe the cosmos, as well as what they prescribe for individual and communal well-being. In making this comparison, we find that Socratic-Platonic philosophy and Buddhism prescribe similar programs for individual excellence, where both systems aim to show individuals how to evaluate the basic assumptions by which they live.
Emily Deraîche-Grossberg
Emily Deraîche-Grossberg