An opportunity for students to explore aspects of philosophy is right around the corner. Salt Lake Community College will host the third Annual International Undergraduate Student Philosophical Conference.
The artistic session is on Nov. 12 from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. in the Grand Theatre at the South City Campus.
Visit slccphilosophyconference.org for more information.
The conference is a two-part series. The first session is on the subject of philosophy in academics, and will be held on Nov. 9.
The second segment of the conference will cover philosophy from an artistic angle, and will be held on Nov. 12. The conference, which the Utah Humanities Council helped make possible, is open and free to the public.
“We have participants that will present, over satellite, real-time video from Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and nationally from Baltimore and Boston,” says Rachel Koontz, student director of the conference. “There are twenty student participants altogether.”
Koontz has helped in an official capacity at all three of the International Philosophy Conferences.
Her experience has brought her to the belief that these discussions are “interesting, and it is a safe place for people to explore these topics in-depth. These discussions bring philosophical ideas down to the real life level.”
“A once-in-a-lifetime event”
Following the speeches, students from different parts of the globe will participate in panel discussions. The topic is “Friedrich Nietzsche vs. Pierre Bourdieu: Education as a Creative Production of Culture.”
“First, we will have a greeting from an expert on Nietzsche, Professor van Tongeren, who will be addressing us from the Netherlands,” says Koontz. “Next year, he will fly in [to Salt Lake] and we look forward to that.”
The academic session will also include speeches from Hent de Vries of Johns Hopkins University and James Faulconer of Brigham Young University. Faulconer is a professor of philosophy and an accomplished author and de Vries is the director of humanities at Johns Hopkins.
Thierry Fischer, the Music Director of the Utah Symphony, will speak during the second segment of the conference on the topic of “The Effects of Omnipresent Noise on Our Perception and Creativity”.
“Fischer will talk about how our world is full of noise,” says Koontz. “And the symphony is making the opposite sound: music. It turns the constant noise into something deliberate and beautiful.”
A brief question and answer session with the audience will follow Fischer’s speech, which is a rare opportunity.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime event,” says Koontz.