[No Comment | 72 views]
No Thanks, This Experience Machine’s Fine.

Given the opportunity, would I allow myself to be hooked up to a machine that makes me feel as though I am authentically living out my wildest dreams? If this were the case given the choice, considering that I would be basing my decision on personal and psychological factors, I would not go into the machine. I am too attached to this life to follow through with this decision, even if I were to reason out that it was in my best interest, even with the knowledge that my decision would be irrelevant once in the machine. However, while my philosophical reasoning would be largely irrelevant in my actual decision-making process, I will argue that, philosophically, based on my conception of the ‘good life’, I would still not enter.

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[19 Apr 2009 | No Comment | 80 views]
Announcing Our First Print Journal

The undergraduate students of Johns Hopkins University are pleased to announce that, for spring of 2009, the first publication of Prometheus, Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Philosophy Journal has been released.  The journal may be viewed online by navigating to the archives section or clicking this link.
Prometheus is a peer-reviewed international undergraduate journal of philosophy providing a forum for scholarly discussion among undergraduates on both early and modern philosophy.  The print journal emphasizes discussions on a broad range of philosophical topics emphasizing thoughtful analysis and creative solutions to early and modern philosophical …

[31 Mar 2009 | No Comment | 39 views]
Hammond Society Essay Contest: Deadline Extended

The Hammond Society essay contest on “What is a good life?” has a new deadline of April 10, 2009. The winner will receive a $100 gift card to Barnes and Noble and 2nd place a $50 gift card.  This contest is open to Johns Hopkins undergraduates only.  For further details on the prompt and other requirements, click here to visit the original post.

[30 Mar 2009 | No Comment | 25 views]
The philosopher within: Wittgenstein’s critical reflection on the beginnings of philosophy

LOCATION CHANGE: Maryland 114, 04/01 @ 8PM
Graduate Philosophy student Alexander James will be presenting a short talk and leading a discussion on “The philosopher within: Wittgenstein’s critical
reflection on the beginnings of philosophy.”
Coffee and snacks provided.
All are encouraged to attend.
For more information, see:
http://prometheus-journal.com/events/seminar/

[25 Feb 2009 | 2 Comments | 1,103 views]
The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever

By Cuong Q. Nguyen
Besides working on Prometheus, I like to distract myself from time to time trying to solve riddles and logic puzzles procured by philosophers. Raymond Smullyan, a prominent logician and philosopher, has a number of logic puzzles available online for people to solve. I’m proud to say that I solved a fair number of them but there’s this one particular puzzle by Smullyan that’s been coined by many philosophers to be “The hardest logic puzzle ever.” I found this early on in September 2008 and I’ve contemplated and quarreled with myself trying to solve this puzzle. Think you can solve it?

[24 Feb 2009 | No Comment | 49 views]
Let The Reading Begin

As the submission deadline comes to a close, we move forward in the review and publication process. Already, the volume of submissions and general interest in Prometheus has exceeded our highest hopes:
.

    50 submissions from 37 undergraduate philosophers
    Five countries: USA, England, Scotland, Canada, Australia

For our first submission cycle, our expectations have been far exceeded. We’d like to thank everyone who has helped us make this possible.