Thank you to everyone who so generously donated to Merlin during our first ever GivingTuesday campaign. Because of you we were able to raise $5,660 for philosophy in the community. Funds will help support our Winter & Spring programs! See more here!
We’re thrilled to welcome new board member Mike McGuire to our team! Mike has been a regular at our community gatherings and an amazingly dedicated volunteer for years. Learn more about Mike here!
We are grateful by the support shown to us in 2023 by the American Philosophical Association Berry Fund for Public Philosophy! Because of their $1,000 award, we were able to launch a new series called “How Did We Get here?” (as part of our philosophy shorts program). Learn more about the series and what award funds helped to support here!
Debates about “free will” crop up in a wide, wide variety of areas: In discussing law and punishment, we ask whether the defendant acted “of his own free will.” In physics and metaphysics, we wonder whether the future is fully deterministic, or whether our choices might affect the course of things. Theologians of various religious traditions ponder a variety of problems over how to reconcile human freedom with divine providence. And researchers in neuroscience and the philosophy of mind worry over the legacy bequeathed to them from Descartes: how, if at all, can the mind even be connected to the body? What, if anything, do these widely varied conversations in divergent fields have in common, besides the name “free will”? Access more here!
Our 2023 philosophy symposia series looks at what it means to be at the interface of loss and legacy. In Fall, we examined the question “How do we think about our ancestors?” during our symposium (held at the Helena Avenue Theater on October 19th) and considered a similar question focused on our military and ancestors in service by way of a WW1 Memorial documentary & community conversation (conducted in Reeder’s Alley on November 2nd). Access resources & watch the audio-video recording here!
Dan Fouts & Merlin team members Mitch Conway & Marisa Diaz-Waian team up to lead a workshop on process and questioning at this year’s technology themed Public Philosophy Network Conference at UC Santa Cruz. Check it out here!
Hosted by John & Victoria Cech on behalf of Carroll College, our technology & philosophy-themed 2023 Food for Thought Fundraiser was amazing. And Mother Nature pulled out all the stops with superb weather from start to finish! View photos, a video recording of our opening theater performance, funds raised, shout-out’s to our hosts, sponsors, volunteers, and more here!
In this philosophy walk led by philosopher Christopher Preston we explored five core questions centered around our relationship with and conceptions of the wild. Access audio recordings and photos here!
