The Student Philosophical Society of GVSU
Philosophy Club Meeting
DATE: Thursday, September 28th
TIME: 6:00 PM
LOCATION: MAK B1138
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GVSU Philosophy Club
Academic Year 2022-2023
Club President: Carver Claeys
Jeffrey Byrnes, Philosophy Faculty member
Andrew Spear, Philosophy Faculty Member
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PHILOSOPHY CLUB
Fall 2023
All GVSU students are welcome!
This week for philosophy club, we’ll be exploring the concept of Epiphenomenalism, a view that mental events are caused by physical events in the brain (think neurons being activated and firing, sending those signals to muscles, all that strict materialist jazz). However, those mental states don’t affect the physical mechanisms, according to the epiphenomenalists. Two analogies help make this idea clearer. We know that a steam whistle is affected by the steam from a locomotive engine but we wouldn’t say that the steam whistle can affect the locomotion. Or, we know that a shadow often accompanies a person walking but we wouldn’t say that the shadow affects the steps of the person it is borne out of. A link to the entry page on Epiphenomenalism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy will be the main resource to look at before coming to club since this will just be a general discussion on the idea itself. The meeting will be on September 28th from 6 to 7 PM in MAK B1138 (Mackinac Hall). All majors, minors, and undeclared folk welcome. See you all then!
- Carver Claeys, Philosophy Club President