Three Years of IPSA - Article from De Wijzer, April 2011

When I was asked to write a bit about my experience in Leuven for De Wijzer, I knew exactly what I would be discussing: The International Philosophy Student’s Association (IPSA). I want to share some of the experiences I have had while working on making IPSA all that it has become. First, though, l want to put out the disclaimer that anything I might have done to establish and build this organization would have meant nothing if it weren’t for the great people around me. So a big shout-out is in order:

If it weren’t for their encouragement, I would never have started (thanks, Stijn and the ’08-‘09 NFK praesidium!).

If it weren’t for their hard work, I would never have been able to lead it where it went. (thanks, especially, to the IPSA ANGELS of ’09-’10, Dziugas, Liesbeth, Ryan, Thérèse, and every other person ever involved in organizing IPSA!)

If it weren’t for their support and inspiration, I would never have had the will power to step up during rough moments. (Thanks to NFK praesidia of all three years, the faculty at HIW, and the people at LOKO International!)

If it weren’t for their smiling faces showing up at our events, I would have had no reason to do it in the first place. (Thanks to you all!)

We have had some fantastic times together. And while at times our organization does not live up to its true potential due to lack of initiative among many of the students, there are still these magical moments that make it all worth it. Last year was filled with them. For me, perhaps the most magical of these moments was the theatre/rock benefit event at which we raised 200 Euros for an AIDS orphanage in Mombasa. I will always look back at that night and be filled with inspiration and joy, and I challenge you to organize a similar event! This year has not been without its own magical moments. Our colloquia have been thought-provoking and inspirational to everyone present. The IPSA/NFK coordinated Open Mic held in March of this year was a success, both in quality and quantity. It was wonderful to see old and new friends freely expressing themselves up on stage, and of course it was a pleasure to do so myself too!

There are so many experiences that have built up over these years with IPSA that it would be hard to do it any justice in a brief article. But I suppose that what would really do IPSA justice is to keep it alive, keep it growing, and let it flourish under the care of new students. It has been exceedingly difficult to pass leadership on, however. With new students coming in each year, with absolutely no idea about what IPSA is or even what Leuven is all about in general, it’s quite difficult to recruit a new group for leadership each year. I think what most directly contributed to last year’s success was the recruitment efforts taken at the very beginning of the year: along with Dziugas and Efe’s great help at student orientation, the help of the legendary party planner Matthew Barton gave way to an infamous start of year moustache party. What was it that got the most attention? FREE BEER!

Alas, my time in Leuven is coming close to an end, and with thesis work dominating my attention it is no longer possible for me to continue taking the lead. I can only hope that other students will see the value in organizing themselves around the IPSA name. If you want an amazing experience that will teach you more life lessons than you know, and if you want to get funding while you are at it, then just make it happen! All you need to do is get people’s attention at the beginning of the year, showing the potential of a good student group. Read here: throw a good party, and they will come! Then you’ve got to organize and delegate. People have parties, nights out, soccer matches, reading groups, and so on all the time… why not organize these officially with IPSA? Why not accept funding? The institute website advertises their International Philosophy Student’s Association, so why not embrace it? It is waiting to become whatever you want to make of it. Challenge yourself. You might be surprised at what you discover… I know I have!


JB

(Original article posted on page 10:Three Years of IPSA)

On Being and Action - Part One

In the following series of blogs I will be discussing all those big questions concerning the nature of the universe and its creation, along with the nature of free will and the possibility of the existence of god(s).  Open your mind and follow along.  If nothing else, this discourse will at least give you a chance to see the bigger picture.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading.

There are two opposing forces that govern every action that takes place in the universe.  On the one hand, there is a positive, creative force by which all things come into being and increase their order and involved relation to each other.  On the other hand there is a negative, destructive force which brings the current state of things to an end and generally decreases the orderly relation of all things to other things. 

That aspect which is commonly attributed to human being alone, i.e., free will, or the will to choose, at any point, the direction of ones actions, is in fact a law that holds for all things.  Free will is seen not only in the actions of human beings, but in the will of all events of existence.  Take for instance the movement we have recently been describing as the big bang.  This movement , as we would have it, is a movement from the extreme unity of a singular entity into the ever-widening universe.  This ever-widening is like the continual expanding of a balloon: as you blow the balloon larger and larger, the patterns on the surface of the balloon continually expand.  Things move apart, patterns get wider, and fragments disperse.  If we take the idea of entropy seriously, then this expansion implicitly involves a movement toward disorder.  Not only are the patterns of the universe expanding, they are in fact deteriorating.  Patterns of the way things once were are no longer recognizable patterns.  The links between those fragments of the original unity continue to decrease.

Such a trend of the activity of the universe should be considered as an example of a negative, destructive force.  And yet, just as I have explained that such a force is always coinciding with an opposing force of positive creation, it is reasonable to imagine that the movement which we describe with the big bang theory also has its opposing movement or force.  If the movement by which all the universe follows is one of entropy, then there must also be an opposite movement: a movement by which all things move from infinite fragmentation, infinite separation, towards unity and complete organization.  If there are clear patterns in the universe which tend by a law of entropy to decrease in their organization, then there must also be some sort of movement which increases organization and moves all fragments toward a singular unity.

The way I have been discussing these opposing trends is generally cosmological: it focuses on the 'big' things of existence.  But these trends can also be seen on the level of the tendencies of living beings, whatever 'living' means in particular. Even the phenomena of life and of death could be described as two instantiations of these two sides of all action.  However, can we not see the same two trends in human activity itself?  Look at those two sides to free will: if considered in the most general terms, the choice that is to be made at every moment is either a yes or a no.  Do it, or not do it?  Make it or not make it?  And so on.  Even in those cases where there are many options to choose from, one always chooses to either go or not go in which ever direction they choose. 

Take for instance the choice to either build something up or break something down.  Such is a very basic general movement observed in the actions of human beings.  One  might choose to build up systems of value by which one brings things together and increases the "orderliness" of the things around him, or one might choose activities which lead to a decrease of order: war is a very potent example of this, for it is inherently an action which moves to decrease the order of a particular set of things.  For example, the actions of war in a particular region tend to decrease the current order present in that place.  Yet, such an example gives us an opportunity to see a possible explanation of the wider relation between these two movements.  War is always a force of destruction directed by another force: that of order.  In war, the destruction of one entity or region is always directed by an urge to increase or create the order of another entity.  When a country invades its neighbor, it wreaks havoc with the intention of benefiting the order of the invading country.  If we take this example as a indicative of a wider tendency of the universe, then we can safely assume, at the least, that any action which tends toward destruction is directed by an opposing action of ordering or creation. 

It should be noted that the way we have been describing this so far is quite one-sided, for it assumes, if you will, that the chicken precedes the egg.  We cannot safely assume that the destructive is always ordered by the constructive.  We must also consider the possibility of the opposite: that the constructive, likewise, is a movement directed by the deconstructive.  Take again the example of war.  War is not simply a willing to decrease order.  Rather, it takes huge amounts of movements toward order in order to carry out the destructive actions of war.  Armies must be organized, bureaucracies must be established, even "rules of war" are often put in place to ensure that the very effort is held within the control of the acting entity.  Tactics are developed.  And what are war tactics if not a momentary organizing of "things" for the sake of the destruction of other "things"?  We must consider the macroscopic instance of this trend.

King's Philosophy Wine and Cheese Speech

Written and delivered Wed. March 26, 2008
At King's University College at the University of Western Ontario

I've been here for five years, believe it or not.
Occasionally I ask what I can do with the understanding that I've developed in this place. Understanding, I say, since it would be misleading to say knowledge or to say wisdom.
Here's why I think so. To me, knowledge is a matter of becoming familiar with certain concepts and ideas through an examination of the world around us. Wisdom, on the other hand, is not a matter of examination, not a matter of observation, but a matter of action.
Wisdom is not gained through reading books.
This is probably one of the most important things I have learned here—and it took five years and a lot of reading to figure it out.
I say understanding because I see Kings' Gift to us as a combination of knowledge and wisdom, a matter of observation and action.
I say understanding because King's has shaped the ground on which we now stand—upon which we will forge our paths in life.
I say understanding because I finally—after all this time— feel like I finally understand a little bit of what it means to struggle—and to finally succeed.
At whatever point you are at on your path, I pray that these brief words will help you find some answers to just what you can do with the things you have learned in this place. I pray that King's will continue to have an impact on the way you live your life.
Finally, and this doesn't seem like too much to ask, I pray simply that our paths cross and we meet again to enjoy drinks and words...

TO KING'S, TO THE LOVE OF WISDOM, AND TO US...
CHEERS!!!

JB