Final report presentations, Spring '26

Select a topic related to the day's scheduled assigned reading OR to one of the RECOMMENDED texts on reserve in the library, below* OR on one of the additional RECOMMENDED (but not reserved) texts.**

Plan to speak for about ten minutes, then give us a discussion question or two and direct the discussion. We'll do two or three presentations per class. If you can find a suitable way to incorporate a library-produced podcast and/or video into your report presentation (as we learned about on our Library Day tour), you're welcome to do so.

If it's a nice day and the class decides to go outside, be prepared to present your report without technological support - you can do a PowerPoint (etc.) and post it, but we'll look at it when we're inside.

Indicate your date & topic preferences in the comments space below (if you're doing one of the reserved or recommended texts, specify which one), and include your section # (1, 2, or 3). Don't request a topic someone in your section has already requested.  First come, first served.

Before your assigned report date, post your sources in the comments space below. 

An accompanying blog post is required for the final report. You'll need to sign up as an Author on the site prior to the due date (May 2). 

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UPDATE, March 24: bonus base awarded if you select March 31 or April 2.

MAR

31 Why Grow Up (WGU) -p.165. Sick Souls, Healthy Minds (SSHM) Prologue - #1 Rylie, #3 Kiersten

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APR

2 WGU -p.192. SSHM ch1 -

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7 WGU -p. 234 SSHM ch2 - #?Anonymous #1 Ainsley  #3 Christopher. 

#1 How the World Thinks (part II) - Sarah. 

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9 SSHM ch3 - #1 Artin #2 Aidyn

*#1 Graham Philosopher Queens-Angela Davis

**#1 Daniel On Bullshit -

14 SSHM ch4 - #1 Jayden Torres #2 Laura #3 Natalie Moreno

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16 SSHM ch5 - #1 Sami Morse #2 Ava. thatgirldayz  #3 Jonah

*#2 Liam Section #2 How the World Thinks -

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21 SSHM ch6 - #1 Haylie #2 Caleb #3 Presley Baker

*Starry Messenger #2  Amelia 

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23 SSHM ch7 - #1 Zariyana-Symosium #2 Chenoa #3 josie

*#12 Evie Starry Messenger

**#2 Johnathane Saleh section #2  Life is hard- how can philosophy help

        #2 Ben Night Vision

*RECOMMENDED TEXTS on 3-day library reserve, at the circulation desk:

1. How the World Thinks (HWT) by Julian Baggini - because Western philosophy is not the whole story.
2. Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, a 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen (FL) - because the contemporary crisis of American democracy is rooted in our history.
3. How to Think Like Socrates, by Donald J. Robertson - because he was, as the Monty Python song says, "a lovely little thinker..."
4. How to Think Like Marcus Aurelius, by Donald J. Robertson - because he was a wise stoic and emperor, as close to a Philosopher-King as we've had or are likely to get.
5. The Philosopher Queens: the lives and legacies of philosophy's unsung women, by Rebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting - because women have always philosophized too.
6. Starry Messenger: cosmic perspectives on civilization, by Neil deGrasse Tyson - because we are cosmopolitans, citizens of the cosmos.
7. Question Everything: A Stone Reader, eds. Catapano and Critchley - short popular essays by contemporary philosophers published in the New York Times, because philosophy is relevant to contemporary issues.
8. Three Roads Back: How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James Responded to the Greatest Losses of Their Lives by Robert Richardson - because we'll all eventually lose someone close.
9. Be Not Afraid of Life: In the Words of William James-companion anthology to Sick Souls Healthy Minds by John Kaag - because William James can save your life, or at least ameliorate it.
10. Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help by Kieran Setiya - because we'll all eventually be challenged by something hard.
11. Night Vision: seeing ourselves through dark moods, by Mariana Allesandri - because all is not sunshine and light.

**ADDITIONALLY RECOMMENDED (but not currently on library reserve, in the stacks)

• Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy's Greatest Pessimist, by David Bather Woods
• How to Think Like a Woman: Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind, by Regan Petaluna
• John Lachs's Practical Philosophy, ed. by Skowronski - about my Vanderbilt mentor (& including an essay by me)
• Kant: A Revolution in Thinking, by Marcus Willaschek
• Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial that Riveted a Nation, by Brenda Wineapple. About the Scopes Trial in Dayton TN, 1925.
• Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes, by Anthony Gottlieb
• Natality: Toward a Philosophy of Birth, by Jennifer Banks, Jen Jayden, et al
• On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt
• On Truth, by Harry Frankfurt
• On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
• Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life, by Agnes Callard (our Spring '25 Lyceum guest)
• Science and Human Affairs from the Viewpoint of Biology, by Winterton C. Curtis (my first landlord)
• Stoic Pragmatism, by John Lachs
• The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy
• The Dream of Reason: A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance
• The Fragility of Goodness, by Martha Nussbaum
• The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
• The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt
• The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir
• The Varieties of Experience: William James After the Linguistic Turn, by Alexis Dianda (our Spring '26 Lyceum guest). About the philosophical importance of experience, even when philosophers cannot put it into words.
• Thinking in Transit: Explorations of Life in Motion, by Ed Casey and Megan Craig. About the value of philosophy that literally moves, co-authored by our Fall '25 Lyceum guest Megan Craig
• Walking: A History, by Rebecca Solnit
• Why Plato Matters Now, by Angie Hobbs
• William James, M.D., by Emma Sutton
• William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism by Robert Richardson
• Writings of William James (WJ) -- James's work is in the public domain, & free on the Internet... but if you'd prefer a handsome keepers' edition in book format I recommend the Library of America's two volumes.