McKelvy House Invites Campus to Sunday Dinner Discussion on Human Emotion

The McKelvy House Scholars invite the campus to join a dinner discussion about human emotion on Sunday evening.

Indian food will be served at dinner, which will begin 6 p.m. at McKelvy House, 200 High Street; no reservations are required. Vegetarian, vegan, and lactose-free food will be provided. Electrical and computer engineering major Ben Doremus ’07 (Hopkinton, Mass.) will lead the discussion at 6:30 p.m.

Doremus poses the following questions to consider before coming to the discussion:

• How much of what you do is controlled by logic, how much by emotion?
• Can we, as realistic human beings, separate good emotion from bad? Would we want to?
• Would it be better to become entirely emotional beings? Entirely logical? Do we need a balance?
• Where is society headed, towards logic or emotion? What factions represent what? Which are good/bad?
• Should we all aspire to be like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., etc?

This is Doremus’ first year in the McKelvy House Scholars program.

“I had been to many McKelvy discussions and met many of the residents [last school year],” he says. “I thoroughly enjoyed their company, both during and after the discussions. More importantly, I was looking to find an atmosphere more stimulating than the normal dorm environment.”

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. Sunday dinner discussions that engage the students in debate and exchange of ideas are the hallmark of the program; several Wednesday discussions have been added this school year. 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:
Feb. 13 – Rationale Behind Military Duty
Feb. 9 – Ghosts
Feb. 2 – Death
Dec. 4 – Mind and brain
Nov. 21 – State of music industry
Nov. 14 – Consistent moral arguments
Nov. 7 – Privilege
Oct. 24 – Modern religion
Oct. 17 – Capital punishment
Oct. 3 – Revenge
Sept. 26 – Suicide
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