UVIC Philosophy Students' Union

Dear Philosophy Students!
 
Lots of news for you with the start of this new semester. Before we get to business, Sean Harrison provided a humourous disclaimer to a Metaphysics class which might be helpful for those of you looking to take Mike Raven’s Intro to Metaphysics 200 class. For your viewing pleasure at http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~ronald/310-Disclaimer.pdf . Also, stop by our website, which now has an interesting map of formal ontology and a photograph from Nagel’s “view from nowhere”: web.uvic.ca/~meta . Also, if you haven’t already done so join our facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=152334139584&ref=ts#/group.php?gid=152334139584 - its a good way for me to let you know what events are coming up, such as, CLUB DAYS! Tomorrow!
 
CLUB DAYS!
Tomorrow at 9:00am we’re starting up our Club Days table in the upper lounge of the SUB. I will sneaky make a poster tomorrow morning, so if you have a suggestion, like “Philosophy - Why not?” let me know before I spill the watercolours. If you are interested in helping out (helping out means sitting at a table and telling people about the horrors of Philosophy and trying to make them buy t-shirts) stop by the table which will be in the upper lounge of the SUB (maybe we’ll be next to the juggling club?! those guys are great). So far, I am the only one committed to the idea, so I will be there from 9:00 - 12:30, 1:30 - 2:30. If someone can help out between 12:30 and 1:30 (those of you who do not have Heidegger) and from 2:30 until takedown at 4:00ish (those of you who are not in Wittgenstein) I would be very much obliged. I may even bring cookies (likely bought, not baked, as there is little time). Club Days also extends Thursday, so volunteers are desperately needed for that day as well. All that the volunteering will involve is getting people to sign up on a mailing list and telling them about some of the positive experiences you’ve had in philosophy or with the philosophy students’ union (if you have no such experiences, feel free to fabricate them). Anyways, it should be fun, kind of like a bakesale, except that there will be a bunch of great clubs around us too. If we’re lucky, they might put us next to the English course union and we can get into loud and heated arguments over the role of interpretation and the possibility of structure in critical theory which we will no doubt win. Perhaps a paintball game could break out. If nothing else, come to club days and get involved in something, even if it isn’t our union! There is a lot of fun stuff going on, and I particularly recommend WUSC and the Commuknits (because I like myself a good pun here and there). I’ll post sign up sheets for table volunteers by the Phil library.
 
 
PMS!
It’s that time of the month for Pierre Wilken, treasurer and skeptic, to start hosting an informal philosophical discussion over beers Wednesday evenings, after dinner around 8:00 at Felicitas. The idea is to get Philosophically Minded Students (hence, PMS) to get together and resolve the fundamental questions of reality and human nature over alcohol at the campus pub. Anyone interested in talking and drinking is welcome - there won’t be set topics or any necessary connection to course-work, just genuinely interesting discussion and of course, whatever is on tap Wednesday nights. For more information, email me at mda@uvic.ca or Pierre at pawilken@uvic.ca .
 
 
PHIL CAFE WITH KLAUS JAHN
This week, the dashing and always interesting Klaus Jahn will be treating us to a phil. cafe on a topic of his choosing - perhaps about death and dying, the transcendental unity of apperception, or maybe just to give us all free German lessons. It should be fun, with coffee and delicious goodies provided. Time: 2:30 on Thursday, Place: CLE B325 (the Phil. Library).
 
 
MEETING THIS THURSDAY!
There will be a meeting directly after the Phil. Cafe, which will likely end when both students and Klaus will have to run to go to Kant. There is a lot to discuss, and we will appoint a new official for the conference this year. Whatever food and coffee remains from the Phil. Cafe is fair game for anyone still lingering.
 
 
HELP WITH THE CONFERENCE!
As you may know, one the principal duties of the PSU is to organize the Western Canada Undergraduate Conference in Philosophy, which will take place in March this year. We usually get presenters from a number of the contributors to the Sophia, our undergraduate journal (for which, the call for papers is out, ladies and gentlemen - so if you have a paper you think is up to snuff, send it on over to Cam at cpotter@uvic.ca). The conference gives contributors and others a chance to present their papers  front of an audience and interested students. Not only is it a lot of fun to get to meet students from philosophy departments from across the country (and the world, on occasion) but it also looks great on your CV (not that you are motivated by these kinds of factors). Pulling this off is usually a great deal of work and we will need volunteers and helpers throughout. Particularly, there is an opportunity for someone to step into one of the lead organizer roles for this years conference. If you are interested, come to the meeting, or email me, or talk to me, Cam, James or Jeanie in the Phil. Library, because it seems like we never really leave that place except to get Chummus wraps.
 
 
 
Anyways, thats all I have for this week! Hope to see you at the Club Days (at least at the Juggling Club table), then again at the PMS at Felicitas! Then again for the Phil. Cafe, and finally for the meeting, by which point, we will likely have seen too much of each other and could use a good break.
 
Also, finally, congratulations to our chair, James, who is going to present a paper on reasonable pluralism (as if there is such a thing! bah!) to eager Philosophers at UBC at their conference this weekend! Hooray James! (or, for you metaethicists, H!(James) ).
 
 
Best,
Mike.