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The McKelvy House Scholars invite the campus to join a dinner discussion on suicide Sunday evening, continuing their fall semester theme of the “seven deadly sins.”
Dinner will begin 6 p.m. at McKelvy House, 200 High Street; no reservations are required. Led by neuroscience major Jaclyn Smith ’07 (Saugus, Calif.), the discussion will start at 6:30 p.m.
“My interest in this topic sprung from a reading that I did over the summer of Albert Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus,” she says. “This is a philosophy essay on the absurdity of life and it raises the question as to whether or not suicide is a reasonable solution to living amidst this absurdity.”
Some of the questions Smith plans on addressing during her discussion include:
Since 1962, the McKelvy House Scholars program has brought together Lafayette students with a wide range of majors and interests to reside in a historic off-campus house and share in intellectual and social activities. Weekly dinner discussions that engage the students in debate and exchange of ideas are the hallmark of the program. Most members also contribute to the annual McKelvy Papers, written on a topic of each person’s choice. McKelvy Scholars participate in activities together such as field trips to plays, concerts, and exhibits, and sponsor events for the campus as well.
Previous discussions:
Sept. 22 – Sexual Lust
Sept. 15 — Envy
Sept. 12 – Themes from A Clockwork Orange
Sept. 8 – Materialism, satisfaction, and poverty
Sept. 5 — Obesity in America
2003-04:
April 25 — Anti-foundationalist critique of philosophy
April 18 – Dark humor
April 11 — Cults
April 4 — Link between ethical behavior and intelligence
March 28 — Five Images of Man
March 7 — Idealized body forms
Feb. 22 — Countercultures
Feb. 15 — Eternity
Feb. 8 — Bisexuality
Dec. 7 — Anger toward computers and technology
Nov. 9 — “Unnecessary” crimes
Nov. 2 — Genetic alteration
Oct. 26 — Social construction of gender
Oct. 19 — Greed as an economic force
Sept. 28 — Value