Date: November 4th
Location: Sparks Room 303
5:00-7:00
Pizza and informal conversation/meeting from 5-5:30
From 5:30-7 we will be discussing friendship.
Feel free to come and go as you need to. If you have a class that lets out at 5:30, come by afterward anyway. Also, if you have a class at 6:30, there is no problem having to leave early
What is friendship?
What makes one a friend?
What should one treasure about friendship?
What, if anything, is desirable about friendship?
Should one hold friendship above justice, charity, or integrity to a principle?
Come philosophize about friendship with the Philosophers’ Guild.
Feel free to explore the roles of friendship in your field of interest or to bring any philosophical background on friendship that you may have. Such might include considerations or doctrines from the Greek philosophers (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus), the existentialists (e.g. Karl Jaspers), modern philosophers (e.g. Hannah Arendt), contemporary literature (see http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/friendship/), or from some professors here at GSU (e.g. Andrew I. Cohen and Tim O’Keefe).
No prior knowledge about philosophical attitudes towards friendship is required to attend this meeting! We will be discussing what is entailed by friendship, what the role of a friend is, and what makes a good friend. If you would like to look at the above links, that would be helpful, but all we ask is that you show up hungry for pizza and philosophical discussion over an aspect our life that we all cherish.
We might discuss the following movie with respect to friendship, but as not all the officers and attendees have seen the movie, it is not necessary for discussion.
Disclaimer: At this Philosophers’ Guild meeting, we will not watch Get Him to the Greek. Rather, we will discuss friendship by referencing contexts in Get Him to the Greek. If you are unable to view the film at Cinefest or elsewhere by the time of the meeting, please consider the recap below (SPOILER alert):
Aaron, an intern in the American music industry, picks up Aldous, an American rock star, from London to escort him to the Greek Theatre where Aldous is to play a show. Aaron likes Aldous’ early hits. Aldous enjoys his work, fame, feeling like a sex symbol, and the pleasures of his rock star-junkie lifestyle—a lifestyle of drug addiction, polygamy, and antagonistic, unstable relationships with spouses and family. From the get-go, Aldous tests Aaron’s willingness to tolerate his mischief and subjects Aaron to his lifestyle: He accuses Aaron of changing the date of the show, openly stalls their travel, asks for honest criticism of his work, takes him to parties, takes humiliating photos of Aaron’s after-party sickness, subjects him to various kinds of sexual scenarios, and requests for Aaron to support his drug addiction or habits.
Early on, one of Aaron’s primary concerns is to accomplish his job—to get Aldous to the Greek Theatre. At one point, Aaron works to keep Aldous sober by tricking Aldous into giving him Aldous’ drugs and alcohol so that Aaron could consume it all. However, Aaron then suffered a life-threatening experience with Aldous’ drugs, witnessed Aldous’ struggles with polygamy, and witnessed Aldous jump off a building into a pool. Aldous survives the stunt and says that he needs to change his personal lifestyle because he is lonely, sad, and embarrassed. In Aaron’s eyes, this last stunt leaves Aldous with a life-threatening injury minutes before the show at the Greek.
Aaron escorts Aldous to the Greek, but he quits his internship immediately because he refuses to be part of a show staff that would push an injured Aldous on stage. At the show, Aldous tells Aaron that Aaron is his friend. Afterwards, Aaron works as Aldous’ producer.
What Makes Aaron and Aldous friends?
If you have not seen the movie, do not worry,
