Monday: Gobline

Seeing as this week’s theme is Pop Philosophy, it’s only natural that we’re once again hosting one of last year’s most popular events: Gobline!

Gobline is a live show with special guests and unique perspectives hosted by a Goblin. They’re one of our sponsors and an absolute hoot! You don’t want to miss it.
Time and Location: 6:30 pm, meet in Ag Block room 06.

Tuesday: Speed Friending

The Literary and Historical Society, German Society, Food Society, Psychological Society, Economics Society, and Philosophy Society are all teaming up for a speed friending event. It will be a great opportunity to check out several societies at once and also to make some new friends. To sweeten the deal, alcohol will also be provided.

Time and Location: 3 pm, Brava Lounge / Old Student Union Centre.

Wednesday: Housing Crisis

We’re collaborating with the World Aid Society for an event in which we discuss a topic relevant to all students: the present housing crisis. It will begin with a presentation by Phil Soc examining housing and the concept of the ‘home’ from a philosophical point of view. This will lead to a more sociologically-oriented section in which facts and figures are presented.

Time and Location: 6:30pm-8:30pm, Newman J109.

Thursday: Popular Philosophy Quiz

This will be fun. It will serve both as a short introduction to philosophical thought as well an in-depth look into philosophical memes. It’s a quiz with philosophy-inspired questions! Come by and discover the objective answer to the trolley problem.

Time and Location: 7 pm, Newman Theatre L.

Friday: Philosophy of + through images

Every day we’re bombarded by images and so it’s really no surprise that philosophers have had a lot to say about it. We do, and we hope you do too. We will deliver a short presentation that will outline several takes on the problem of images. Our hope is that it will inspire discussion and an exchange of ideas.

Time and Location: 2:30-3:30, Student Centre Blue Room.

Monday:

join us for a reading on the philosophy of fiction on Monday the 26th at 6pm in the student center. we will be waiting in the red room. after the reading we will all engage in discussion and you will have a chance to give your input. also we will be ordering pizza to enjoy while we discuss fiction.

Wednesday:

Movies are some of the most complex and varied forms of literature around so this week we have decided to hold a mystery screening. come along to this movie night after your lectures.

student center, Blue Room on 28th September 2022 at 20:00 until 22:00

Friday: creative writing

During this interactive event we give philosophical writing prompts such as “what are our limitations as a species” or “is it better to be fair or loyal?” and participants are encouraged to write a piece of fiction with these prompts. towards the end we encourage as as many of you to show and talk about you work and we’ll also give everyone a chance to go around the room and discuss their writing.

student center, (Red Room) on 30th September 2022 at 18:30 until 20:30

Monday:

we will kick of this week with some poetry and walks. in the first part we have selected some poems to be read out and analyzed that are both philosophical and to do with nature (or at least use it as a tool to display a point.

after we have had a reading we will walk around the more natural parts of ucd with the poems in mind  (and at hand) to gain more insight into the poems and the natural world.

location and time: student center,

Wednesday:

Wednesdays event will be centered around this question that we will all discuss and debate. are animals and nature valuable in and of themselves or are they only valuable and worthwhile because they benefit and are necessary to humans. In this event we will debate this question and all who come are more than welcome to share their views (respectfully). essentially this is a semi ethical semi metaphysical debate on anthropocentrism. come by and share your views.

time and place: student center, Red Room on 12th October 2022 at 15:00 until 17:00

Friday:

in this final event of the week we will watch a nature documentary and order pizza to enjoy along with the film. afterwards if there is time there will be a discussion on the movie and guests are invited to share their own views

time and place: student center: Blue Room on 14th October 2022 at 18:00

chill week

we understand that for many members their mid term essay deadlines and exams are coming up. given this, week 6 is dedicated to relaxation.

Monday:

help each other event. in this social event you bring the reading material and literature. any area of philosophy that anyone’s interested in or struggling with can be addressed here as during this event members will discuss together and help each other out. we combine our brains together in the name of greater understanding as everyone can both teach and learn. feel free to bring your own essays too.

student center, Red Room (Red Room) on 17th October 2022 at 18:00 until 20:30.

Wednesday:

karaoke! come along and have some fun in this chill event as I’m sure by now many of you are tired of collage back to back for six weeks straight.

student center, Blue Room on 19th October 2022 at 18:00 until 20:00

Friday:

screening with pizza and popcorn!!! to help everyone relax after a long week.

student center, Blue Room on 21st October 2022 at 18:00 until 21:00

ethical dilemmas week

Monday:

walking debate.

in the days leading up to this event we will send a post out on our social media and an email allowing you to submit ethical dilemmas/questions. we will pick the top 6 and they will form the basis of this evet. there will be 6 walking debates centered around these questions. there will be about 15 minutes of debate per each question until we move on to another.

16.30 to 6pm blue room,, student center.

Wednesday:

short story

in this event we will be reading a short story in which there is at least one huge ethical dilemma to be faced and have discussion afterwards were everyone can share their view.

student center, red room, 8pm until 10pm.

Friday:

current ethical dilemmas 

here we will look at ethical dilemmas facing everyone in the modern day such as fast fashion, and how we as individuals could act. we will prepare a presentation and then afterwards have a discussion were everyone is more than welcome to voice their own view.

16.30, red room, student center.

we hope you enjoy your mid term break!!!

we will be holding game nights on discord

Monday:

The classics never die and nowhere is this more true than in the game of chess. The game remains immensely popular today despite competition with board and digital games. In this Collab event with the Chess Society, we will deliver a presentation split up into two parts: they will do a presentation on the “how to” of chess, examining tactics, strategies, openings, combinations, and so on. Our part of the presentation will look at the philosophy of chess as a game and cultural phenomenon, What lessons we can draw from the game? What insights does it give us as an art form?

7th of November, 6 pm to 8 pm, Red Room, Student Centre.

Wednesday:

Make a game! By popular demand, the make-your-own-game event is back. In this event, we will either all work as a group or split up into groups (depending on numbers) and work together to create a new game which we will then play. Last year we came up with something pretty fun and complex, so let’s see if we can top it this year! We will provide some material for brainstorming and to inspire creativity, but you’re more than welcome to bring your own gear (like cards and dice) as well as other material like notepads and pens.

9th November, 6 pm – 8:30 pm, Red Room, Student Centre.

Friday:

It wouldn’t be games week without a gaming movie. In this mystery screening, we will be showing one of the video game or board game movies. Come along and find out which one…

11th November, 6 pm to 8.30 pm, Red Room, Student Centre.

This week is very embedded in academia but not without good reason. We intend to shed some light on some much-neglected Asian philosophies. For each event, we will deep dive into a famous aspect of Asian philosophy. There is much to learn so this week is meant for the truly curious and inquisitive!

Monday:   

Confucianism

14th November, 6 pm – 8 pm, Red Room, Student Centre.

Wednesday:

Taoism

16th November, 6 pm – 8 pm, Blue Room, Student Centre.

Friday:

Buddhism

18th November, 6 pm – 8 pm, Blue Room, Student Centre.

Monday:

Personality typing event.

There are many systems and frameworks out there used for determining personality types, such as the big five, MBTI, the enneagram, and much more.

At this event, we will give a presentation and have a short reading followed by an introspective discussion on one of these systems, the instinctual variants, which is an aspect of the enneagram but also its stand-alone thing. It’s a simple one to understand but quite useful. The event will go into what the instinctual variants are and we strongly encourage attendants to introspect and type themselves using this system.

21st November, 6 pm – 8:30 pm, Blue Room, Student Centre.

Tuesday:

screening Collab with netsoc. it may not keep with the theme of the week but it’ll be fun to watch another movie with our friends over at netsoc again. the screening is coded Bias, a Netflix documentary. Pizza shall be served again!

Newman building, k115. 6pm

Wednesday:

Mental health brainstorming session:

In this discussion-based event, our aim will be to explore the different ideas and methods for how one could improve their mental health. We will also talk about stress management as it’s pertinent with exams just around the corner.

23rd November, 7 pm – 9 pm, harmony studio, Student Centre. the room is on the third floor of the center at the very back. if you are struggling to find it message us on our Instagram or by email

 Friday:

Mystery movie screaming.

The theme is psychology therefore our mystery screening for this week will be of that theme. Have a nice weekend!

25th November, 6 pm – 8:30 pm, Blue Room, Student Centre.

popular events week

in this week we will do 3 of our most fun and popular events that we rand this semester.

Monday

walking debate again, 4 new questions and 2 unfinished questions from the last debate.

6pm, red room, student center

Thursday:

Creative writing event and discussion. We will bring many philosophical prompts like  last time and after an hour or so of quiet writing there will be a discussion maybe even a few readings of what people have written. this was very therapeutic and enjoyable last time and we hope it will be again. A great chance to flex your creative muscles too.

student center, (Red Room) on 1st December 2022 at 08:00 until 10:00

Friday

Karaoke!!!! ending of the year with some music and a good old time!

6pm to 9pm. red room, student center

welcome back!

We hope you have all had a lovely break and enjoyed the many holidays that took place over the last while, and we are happy to be back to you with another fun semester of events and activities.

If there are any questions or concerns about the plans below please email us.

This semester we have events ranging from fun interactive ones to more acedemic ones focused on learning and discussion (should be fun also though 🙂 ). Keep an eye on our page as events and weeks will be uploaded here in the next few weeks. Also look out for our email near the start of this semester.

We are looking forward to hosting a great and eventful semester here at philsoc.

Week 20

Monday: Walking debate

For our first event of the semester we will have one of another walking debate, since they were very popular and fun last semester. The debate will feature all new questions and anyone is welcome to come along and have their opinions heard.

Student center, red room, 6pm-8.30pm.

Tuesday: Coffee morning 10 to 11.

Tuesdays event will be a welcome back coffee morning. Tea and some snacks will also be served. This is also a chance to suggest Ideas for what you would like to see philsoc do next year.

Blue room, student center. 10am to 11am.

Wednesday: Gobline live show.

Come along and see a live show of our sponsor gobline who are a satirical comedy group that dress up as fantasy creatures and host episodes were they interview guests and talk about the world and philosophy. If you enjoy philosophy and satirical comedy we are sure this will be your cup of tea.

Newman building, room g109 at 6pm

Friday: movie screening with pizza.

The title says it all! we have a few movies in mind but you are all more than welcome to suggest what you would like to see through email or on our Instagram.

Student center, Blue Room on 27th January 2023 at 18:00 until 20:30

Party week

Monday: The Dancing Debate 

Imagine a walking debate, but so much more than that! Only hedonism-related questions will be permitted, and prepare to dance!

Red Room, 18:00

Wednesday: (Irish) Coffee Morning 

How can we incorporate the philosophy of partying into a generic coffee morning? By adding some party water, of course! Get lost in the sauce and some intoxicated takes. Don’t like what you hear? Blame it on the alcohol!  

Red Room, 11:00

Friday: The Party Experience

[…]

location TBA, 18:00

Philosophy 101 week

Tuesday: Coffee morning.

This coffee morning is a discussion event that should give everyone a chance to learn from one another as we discuss general philosophy and help one another enhance their understanding of a certain topic or concept.

Red Room, student center, from 10:00 until 11:00

Wednesday: Philosophy Kahoot.

Just like the Kahoot we had during freshers week except this one will have prizes for first, second and third place. Join us and enter for a chance to win.

Location: Newman building, room g108 at 6pm

Friday: Walking debate.

All new questions, all new themes, but still keeping the casual form of our walking debates. Come along if you enjoy debating in a none competitive style with very accessible questions.

6pm. Newman building, F106

Games week

Monday: Cards against humanity.

For this event we will be hosting cards against humanity games. Surely a brilliant way to start your week and end your Monday night! Depending on the turn out to this event there may be multiple sperate games going on at separate tables for this event.

6pm to 8.30pm. Newman building, B110

Tuesday: Coffee morning.

What are the upcoming 2023 games you are looking forward too? What is your favorite moment from content creators who play games for their own experience? What is an important philosophical lesson that you learned from a game? Can philosophy be experienced by means of video games?  In this coffee morning we will discuss these questions and more!

10am to 11am student center. red room

Tuesday evening: Among us game.

Hop on discord on Tuesday evening and join us in games of among us.

7pm, online, discord.

Wednesday: Dungeons and dragons  one shot.

What does dnd have to do with philosophy? Usually not much but with this unique philosophy themed campaign we will be running the players and their characters will be brought through some unique and exiting philosophical moments and themes. this is a one shot campaign (the whole story is played in one sitting) and is the perfect dnd campaign for new players who have never played or even never heard of dnd. The campaign its self will kick of at 6pm but at 5pm there will be a chance to make your own character with one of our 5 knowledgeable specialists who will be at the event to help, guide, and answer all questions. This presents a unique opportunity to design your own hero and flex your creative muscles by deciding such things like their backstory and their class.

If you don’t have the time to come at 5 and don’t have your own premade character ( which we will allow as long as they are scaled to the right level for the campaign) don’t worry because we have several premade characters for you to choose from.

The campaign  will kick of at 6 and depending on the size of the group there may be multiple campaigns on different tables run by separate dungeon masters (the story tellers).

Pizza will be served during the event since this will  be a longer event and we imagine people will get hungry.

5pm until 9pm student center, red room.

Friday: Pixels screening.

Popcorn will be served!

student center, red room. 18.00 until 20.30.

The Philosophy of the Non-Past

Monday: Travel Through (Not) Time

Let’s play a game! Each participant will be presented with historical information and asked to explain how that led to our current reality. There’s just one missing detail… the information they have been given is false, which allows us to explore an alternative narrative.

newman building. 6pm in j110

Wednesday: A Seemingly Innocuous Coffee Morning 

Just your average gathering over a spread of tea and biscuits, but be careful… will your name come up?  

the old student center main area, 11am

Friday: HAIR Screening

Once described as “very PhilSoc”, HAIR is “a 1979 American musical anti-war comedy-drama film based on the 1968 Broadway musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock

blue room in the student center , 6pm

Art week

Monday: Creative writing with philosophical prompts.

In our third creative writing event of the year we have prepared all new philosophical prompts! we will all be writing a little piece of literature ( poem, short story, etc.) and if you are comfortable your welcome to share what you have written at the end, and receive feedback if you want it.

student center, red room, 6pm.

Wednesday: Camus presentation.

Albert Camus is one of the most insightful writers in history and his work continues to inspire philosophical thought. In this event we have prepared a presentation on this unique individual and in the end we will have a discussion in relation to him and his work, as well as the philosophy of art and fiction as a whole.

Red Room , student center, on 1st March 2023 at 18:00 until 20:00

Friday: Movie night!

For this weeks mystery movie we have chosen an artistic film made to inspire and provoke thought.

red room, student center, 6pm

Monday: a guest speaker- “the three Aristotles of James Joyce.”

for our first event this week we will be welcoming a guest speaker, Fran O’Rourke who will be giving a presentation going by the above title.

red room, student center, 6pm.

Comedy week

Some say that comedians are the philosophers of the modern day. Therefore, we bring you comedy week!

Wednesday: A grand roast

In this interactive event we will encourage the audience to roast our committee and other volunteers who are happy to be roasted.

We will make a power point that gives roast worthy facts and details about our volunteers and the audience is free to craft any joke or roast they please about whoever’s on stage.

If you would like to be one of our brave volunteer’s who would like to be roasted there will be a link on our Instagram and many of our emails leading up to the event that leads to a page where you can fill in your name and student number then go on to list as many facts about yourself if you like that can be used during the day of the event when you are called up.

Conditions:

No roasting someone outside of the things they have mentioned on the power point.

Only roast those who have volunteered for it.

This is ultimately an event done in good nature for good fun so please be respectful to all those participating.

Newman building, B109, 6pm

Thursday: Comedy and its place in society.

In this event we look at the philosophy of comedy and its importance in every day life and how it benefits or damages society.

We have prepared a presentation on  the matter however the main focus of this event is discussion so come along and voice your views.

student center, red room, 6pm to 7.30pm

Friday: Mystery stand up special

A little twist on our movie nights, we will show a stand up comedy special this time!

As always, pizza will be served 😉

Newman building, theater R, 6pm

Thanatology & Eschatology

Monday: BuzzFeed:Unsolved

For this event, we will watch several clips from the series BuzzFeed:Unsolved and then discuss the different scenarios and theories. 

Newman Building, theatre N, 6 PM until 8.30

Friday: All Aboard! 

We present to you one of our biggest events this year: a trip on The Gravedigger Ghost Bus. For the incredible price of only €10 (usually €32), you get to experience a two-hour-long trip to the spookiest parts of Dublin, including a stop at the infamous “John Kavanagh”, where you will be served a mysterious brew. We will meet in the Village centre around 6:30 PM to collect the cash (!) payment and give you the opportunity to buy some drinks (alcohol is allowed on the bus). Please do not be late, as we cannot wait for you. The tour starts from the UCD coach park and will drop us off at Dame street around 10 PM again.

Monday: Annual Society Meating with pizza!?!?!?

In this event committee will give a report to society members and answer all questions about the society like plans about the future and about what has happened in the past year. it is also a chance for all participants at the meeting to give suggestions, criticisms and make known their views about what we did well and what we shouldn’t do again.

this is also for the purposes of elections and we will here decide the committee for next year. all positions are up for grabs including major positions like secretary, auditor and pro. If you would like to join the committee come along and throw your name in. you will be given an opportunity to represent yourself and show why you should be elected into the position. there will be a link on our email and social media to a page where you can put down your details and what position you want in the weeks before hand.

Pizza will be served afterwards.

student center, (Red Room) on 3rd April 2023 at 18:00 until 20:30

Tuesday: Don’t Fear the Reaper! 

The attendees are organized into groups and each group is given a model (social, cultural, religious) of how death is engaged with. The groups come together to represent their respective models and to relate them to the others. At the end of the event, the groups are dissolved, and the attendees are asked to choose which model they would personally prefer to approach death.  

Newman building, theatre R. 6pm to 8.30.

Wednesday:

Join us for our first event of Sociology Week! You’ll be given a crash course in the main schools of thought within this elusive field and get a basic grasp on how to conduct sociological analysis. And the rest is up to you – together with your fellow now-sociologists you’ll investigate the sociological implications of an object of your choice (be it your favorite video game or even a can of beans!), and then share and discuss your findings to expand your knowledge of the banal world of objects around you.

6pm, blue room, student center

Friday:

Come and chill with us as we close off the week with one of PhilSoc’s most time-honored traditions: the Walking Debate… but with a sociological twist! You’ll be presented with statements made by famous sociologists on various topics and be tasked with debating their overall validity, in addition to navigating your way through the often very obtuse language employed by these people… Further your understanding of the (social) world through discussion, and have fun while at it!

student center, red room, 6pm to 8.30

Prep week

This week is designed with the knowledge that many of us here at ucd will be facing many exams and assignment deadlines soon and we understand that this is a very stressful time of the acedemic year. Therefore we have designed this week to reduce stress and to be an opportunity for relaxation and just chilling out.

Tuesday: Peace and meditation.

In this event we have prepared many guided meditations in the name of peace and relaxation. We hope the guides learned here will be useful to you as we head into the exam season.

19.00 to 8.30. Harmony studio, on the highest floor of the student center at at the very back of the long balcony/hallway.

Wednesday: Assignment and reading help day.

Are you struggling to understand or make sense of a specific reading. Do you want to toss ideas out for a specific assignment and get feedback? In this event we will all help each other ( keeping in line with university guidelines) with each others work. We can provide interpretations, give ideas, and help with anything specific you would like to work on, even if its not philosophy related (although we can help a lot more if it is).

4p. to 5.30pm red room, student center

Friday: Relaxing movie night with pizza.

We have selected a nice well known comedy movie for this event that will remain a mystery. If you have never seen it you will be in for a hoot and if you have then this is one movie we are certain everyone will be happy to watch again.

6pm, Newman building. theatre N

Identity, Selfhood & Aesthetics

Monday: An Evening with ???

[…]

location & time TBA

Wednesday: Staging Social Performance

Through a combination of dialogue and exercises, this would-be acting workshop confronts the boundaries between identity and performance. We will look at the work of Erving Goffman to consider how much of ourselves is a performance. For others? For ourselves? Are there parts of our identities that are abstract to or detached from that?

location & time TBA

Friday: Aesthetic Modes

Disney. Nickelodeon. Cottagecore. Surrealism. Dark Academia. Renaissance. Y2K. Corecore.  

Attendees will be asked to interpret/analyse the meaning behind individual aesthetics to respond to arguments on the broader subject of aesthetics. We will dissect the relevant contexts to uncover stylised imagery’s power (social, political, cultural, commercial, etc.). 

location & time TBA