Noumena: Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy at UTSC

The Association of Philosophy Students proudly presents , UTSC's Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy.

launched Monday, October 17th at the APS organized . The event featured an interdisciplinary debate on "The Meaning of Life" as interpreted by representatives from philosophy and biology. Students and faculty participated in a lively discussion about what "life" is, what "meaning" is, and how we associate one with the other.

Copies of are available at various locations throughout the department and the UTSC campus this fall: Jason Ferreira's office (HW331A), the SCSU Office (Student Center) and Student Life (also located in the Student Center). The journal is published electronically and PDF versions of it are available for download.

If you have written work that you would like to submit to the journal, please review the submission guidelines. Submissions must be philosophical compositions, but they may be on any philosophy topic or tradition.

Annual UTSC Undergraduate Philosophy Conference: 2012

is in it's fifth year. We enjoyed an extremely successful conference last year and we're looking for ways to make the conference even more successful this year. One of our first items of business for 2012 will be laying down the groundwork for the conference and discussing the changes we have proposed with the general membership:

  • Reducing the number of presenters to four (4) to allow for a more relaxed experience;
  • Increasing the time allotted for Q & A in an attempt to encourage more of a moderated discussion;
  • Increasing the duration of breaks (from 5 minutes to 15 minutes) between presentations in an attempt to encourage more informal discussion.

We will be holding the conference on Saturday, March 10th. This is a week earlier than last year's conference. Many of us felt that the conference date fell too close to exam periods last year, but we do want to allow undergraduates time to write their final term papers, as these constitute the bulk of our submissions. Let this be our compromise.

Our revised timeline looks something like this:

  • September 2011: Selection of our keynote speaker.
  • October 2011: Call for papers.
  • January 1st, 2012: Deadline for submissions.
  • January 16th, 2012: First round selections.

Please remember that we encourage submissions from UTSC students!

We will certainly be discussing the conference at our first General Meeting. Be sure to bring your ideas with you!

General Meetings

The Association of Philosophy Students meets at least once each month to discuss the progression of ongoing projects and the formation of new ones. General members are encouraged to submit their questions, concerns, and suggestions to the Executive Committee prior to each scheduled meeting. At General Meetings, members may be asked to vote on various items of business including budget considerations, upcoming events, and/or changes to the constitution. The date, time and location of each subsequent General Meeting will be announced at the conclusion of the current meeting, but this information will be made available online and via email as well. Members are not required to attend General Meetings to maintain membership, but it is recommended that they do so.

Facilitated Discussion Nights

From time to time throughout the year, the Association of Philosophy Students organizes facilitated discussion evenings. These generally take place in a relaxed atmosphere on or off-campus and are an excellent opportunity for students interested in or studying philosophy to communicate with each other and do some philosophy.

We ask that one member prepare a topic for these discussion nights, be prepared to give a brief introduction of that topic, and then facilitate the discussion that follows. Facilitators are expected to moderate the length of time any one individual has to speak in a fair manner, and are also expected to prevent the discussion from straying too far off course. If you are interested in presenting a topic or leading a discussion night, please contact the Vice-President Events.

We will be discussing the scheduling and frequency of these discussion nights at our First General Meeting. We hope to find a regular evening that is convenient for the majority of those interested in attending.

Academic Services

The Association of Philosophy Students regularly works in concert with the Department of Philosophy to provide philosophical academic services and workshops to the student body. In the past, we have assisted in providing the following services to the student body:

  • Philosophy Essay Clinic
  • A-level Tutorial Sessions
  • Graduate School Application Workshop

This year, we'd like to expand on those services. Please see the Services section of this site for details on the projects we hope to develop. If there is a particular academic service or workshop that you would like to see put into place, please contact the Vice-President Academics.

Guest Lectures

On occasion, the Association of Philosophy students invites a graduate student from the University of Toronto to present a paper or give a brief lecture on the topic of their graduate studies and/or dissertation. A moderated discussion follows, and then we generally all head to a pub for dinner and refreshments.

This year, we have confirmed Farshid Baghai from the University of Toronto. Farshid's research interests include Kant, German Idealism, and 20th century continental philosophy. Farshid will be facilitating a discussion evening Monday, November 7th, from 5pm-7pm on "Philosophy as Redemption." click here for more information.

We'd like to organize at least one additional guest lecture for the year. If you have specific areas of interest, please let us know.

Cross-Campus Events

We'd like to look at organizing and hosting some cross-campus events this year. These would likely involve the Philosophy Course Union downtown, but could also involve student groups at other local campuses. Here are some of the ideas we've come up with:

  • Team debates
  • Collaborative discussion nights