STAFF WRITER
MELISSA MOSGELLER

On Wednesday, Nov. 15 and Thursday, Nov. 16, St. John Fisher College will participate in the fourth annual United Nations Philosophy Day.  The Philosophy Day program will take place in the Golisano Midlevel Gateway.  This year’s theme is “Philosophy and Pop Culture.”  Philosophy professors David White and Tim Madigan will host the event.

“With this program, we hope to shed a positive light on philosophy,” White said.  “Philosophy is part of everyday life.  We hope that people come to this and see the roles philosophy plays in their daily lives.”

The popular culture theme comes from the idea that what people do in their everyday lives, what people are interested in - this represents popular culture.

“Pop culture is what people choose to participate in,” Madigan said.

The program begins on Wednesday night at 6:15 p.m.  The highlight of the evening will be the keynote speaker, Fr. Leo Hetzler.  Hetzler will be talking about Max Brand, a writer, who wrote popular Western novels with philosophical themes.

On Thursday, keynote speaker Lynn Bartholome will discuss Lilth in pop culture.  Lilth was the mythological first wife of Adam - the first man created according to the Bible.  Lilth represents the feminine dark side of the divine.

The event will be conducted in a roundtable, panel discussion format.  Each guest speaker will speak for 15 minutes about a specific topic that relates to the theme of the discussion.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is responsible for sponsoring Philosophy Day.  UNESCO was established after World War II to recognize the need to rebuild educational and cultural institutions.

Philosophy Day was brought to White’s attention five years ago when he was attending the World Congress of Philosophy.  Since then, Fisher has participated in the annual celebration.  The idea behind the day is to promote and publicize philosophy throughout the world.  

“We hope that by making this an evening and day long event students will come when they have a free moment,” White said. “This way, they can participate in the program on their own time.”

Email address:
msm6360@sjfc.edu