"Spinoza's Bad Hair Day: Living Well in Light of Eternity"

The Phi Sigma Tau International Philosophy Honor Society Zeta Chapter and Liberty University Philosophy Club will be hosting a lecture event this Tuesday, October 27, at 7:00 p.m. in DeMoss Hall 1101. Dr. Michael A. Babcock of the Humanities Department will present a lecture entitled "Spinoza's Bad Hair Day: Living Well in Light of Eternity," which will deal with the underlying premise of Dr. Babcock's most recent book UnChristian America. As a reminder, all of our lecture events are open to students, faculty, staff, and the general public. Coffee and tea will be available.

Dr. Babcock's UnChristian America:
"With the 2008 election approaching, the Christian Right will once again be a major topic of discussion. Conservatives are concerned that America is losing its Christian heritage, and liberals are disturbed at what they see as the increasing political power of Christian conservatives. Yet both sides often share a key assumption: that America has historically been a Christian nation. In UnChristian America, Liberty University professor Michael Babcock traces America's historical, political, and religious development to reveal the surprising truth: The country has been trending post-Christian since Jamestown, and therefore America was never really Christians' to lose. As he presents a sympathetic but candid view of the legacy of the Christian Right, Babcock challenges evangelicals to take action for moral change and prevent the slide into a post-Christian future before it's too late."

Speaker Information:
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
M.F.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Dr. Babcock is the author of The Stories of Attila the Hun's Death: Narrative, Myth, and Meaning (published 2001), and he also speaks frequently at academic conferences nationwide on topics as diverse as Shakespeare, art, language origins, and the philosophy of consciousness. Dr. Babcock has been on the Liberty University faculty since 1997.

Lecture Tomorrow by Dr. Baggett on "Taking Divine Necessity Seriously"

The Phi Sigma Tau International Philosophy Honor Society Zeta Chapter and Liberty University Philosophy Club cordially invite you to a lecture event taking place tomorrow night, Tuesday, September 15, at 7 p.m. in RH 108. Liberty's own Dr. Baggett will be speaking on "Taking Divine Necessity Seriously." Come with an inquisitive mind. This event is open to all students, faculty, and staff, as well as the general public. As always, coffee and hot tea will be provided.

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"Selective Memory: Recollecting a Neglected Past" Lecture Event on 4/2

Liberty University's Donna Donald will present a lecture on Thursday, April 2, at 7:00 p.m. in RH 110 entitled "Selective Memory: Recollecting a Neglected Past." Professor Donald will be speaking on the disregard of church history and tradition in the modern protestant and evangelical church. This event is hosted by the Liberty University Phi Sigma Tau International Honor Society Zeta Chapter and the Liberty University Philosophy Club and is open to the general public as well as the student body. It is a continuation of the "Sketching a Philosophy of Education" series. Coffee will be provided.

Speaker Information:
"Professor Donald is 'homegrown' at Liberty. She graduated from Lynchburg Christian Academy, where she met her husband, Mike. She attended Liberty for one year before they married and then focused her energy on homemaking and caring for her son, Tommy.

When the opportunity arose, she returned to Liberty to complete her BA in history with a minor in French and went on to earn the MA from University of North Carolina Greensboro. Her major concentration of study there was European history with a minor concentration in American history. Professor Donald joined the history faculty at Liberty in 2001 and was appointed Assistant Professor of History in 2006. She has also taken the role of Phi Alpha Theta's faculty advisor.

Currently Professor Donald is completing the Ph.D. in history at George Mason University. Her major field is Early Modern Europe and her minor fields are Early America and Early Modern Culture. Her dissertation research will examine the lives and writings of Protestant noblewomen in Reformation France and their role in creating and perserving Huguenot identity.

When Professor Donald is not teaching or studying, she is spending time with her family or her friends. She hopes to be more involved in the 'real world' once her Ph.D. studies are finished."

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Progress and Corruption in the Commercial Age Lecture

Greetings from the Philosophy Club. This Thursday, March 5th, at 7:00 PM in Religion Hall 110, Phi Sigma Tau will be hosting a lecture entitled “Progress and Corruption in the Commercial Age.” The lecture will be delivered by Matthew Arbo, PhD., Candidate, University of Edinburgh. Mr. Arbo is a graduate of Liberty University. He will speak primarily on the evils and ills of the modern commercial culture.

We hope that you will be able to join us for what promises to be an excellent lecture and an enjoyable evening. By way of reminder, our lecture events are open to the general public, so be sure to invite others. And as always, free coffee will be present.

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*Important Notification On Thursday's Ethics Lecture*

Due to a family crisis, Dr. Baggett will be unable to present his lecture this Thursday evening as planned. The event will be postponed until further notice. Please keep checking this page for more news on upcoming events and lectures. At least three lecture events are planned for this spring semester, one of them hopefully still being Dr. Baggett's presentation. Please pray for him and his family through this time, and check back for further updates.

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If God Weren't Good: A Lecture In Ethics - 2/12

Phi Sigma Tau Liberty University Zeta chapter is pleased to announce its first lecture event of the spring semester. Dr. David Baggett will be giving a presentation entitled "If God Weren't Good: A Lecture In Ethics" on February 12 at 7:00 p.m. in RH 104. This event is a continuation of the Honor Society's Faculty Lecture Series and is one that you will not want to miss. As a reminder, Phi Sigma Tau's lecture events are open to the entire student body as well as the general public, and coffee will be present. Be sure to mark your calendars for this important event as Dr. Baggett lectures on a topic often taken for granted in modern, mainline Christian thought. Dr. Baggett's credentials and information can be accessed here.

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New Update: Senior Theses

We are pleased to announce a new addition to our site: a sidebar containing links to the senior honors theses of past Phi Sigma Tau Zeta officers. As more become available online through Digital Commons and Google Scholar, we will be sure to post them for the student body's reading edification and enjoyment. Please check out past Secretary Adam Myer's insights into Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of History, and expect more additions in the coming months.

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MacIntyre Reading Group

For those who are interested, this is a reminder that the After Virtue reading group will continue this coming Monday, February 2, at 6:30 p.m. on the third floor of DeMoss Hall, study room 3316. Please read chapters 4-6 for this week's meeting, and come with an inquisitive mind. This is a group that is open to any Liberty student of any major. You do not need to be a philosophy major or a Phi Sigma Tau member to attend. Copies of the book may be found in the library or attained through inter-library loan. Please be sure to make some time this week to check out this highly important and influential work on the disordered state of modern ethics.

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MacIntyre Reading Group

Beginning this Monday, January 19, the Phi Sigma Tau Philosophy Honor Society will begin a reading group for Alasdair ManIntyre's monumental work on ethics, After Virtue. The discussion will begin at 6:30 p.m. at a location yet to be announced. This is a Philosophy Club event open to anyone who is interested regardless of major. Come with an inquisitive mind. Please email Nancy Frame at neframe@liberty.edu if you plan on joining us. We will only be reading the first three chapters of the text for this meeting, and will continue to meet again every two weeks until we finish the work. The book can be found easily online through both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

From the back cover of the third edition: "When After Virtue first appeared in 1981, it was recognized as a significant and potentially controversial critique of contemporary moral philosophy. Newsweek called it 'a stunning new study of ethics by one of the foremost moral philosophers in the English-speaking world.'

"In this classic work, Alasdair ManIntyre examines the historical and conceptual roots of the idea of virtue, diagnoses the reasons for its absence in personal and public life, and offers a tentative proposal for its recovery. While the individual chapters are wideranging, once pieced together they compromise a penetrating and focused argument about the price of modernity.

"Alasdair ManIntyre is research professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of numerous books, including Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (Notre Dame Press, 1988) and Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy, and Tradition (Notre Dame Press, 1990)."

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Spring Semester Overview

The officers of Phi Sigma Tau Zeta are already hard at work to organize and deliver the finest lecture presentations and events available to the Liberty University student body for the upcoming spring semester. Emails have been sent out to all the Philosophy majors regarding a new email list as well as a brief overview of the semester's activities. If you would like to be added to this new distribution list and did not receive an email, please contact the Secretary Nancy Frame at neframe@liberty.edu. Of special interest to students enrolled in PHIL 303 is a reading group that will be continued this semester. We will be reading Alasdair MacIntyre's influential and important work on ethics, After Virtue, and possibly Frederick Beiser's outstanding The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte, which is the best single-volume book you can read to understand the material in the course. Keep checking this web page for new updates as we solidify an event schedule for this semester. Anyone interested in the reading group or with other questions about the honor society or club can feel free to contact one of the officers. Thank you for your continued interest in the club's events and mission for this new year.

Samuel Loncar,
President, PST Zeta Chapter, sjloncar@liberty.edu

Nancy Frame,
Secretary, neframe@liberty.edu

Cole Bender,
Treasurer, cabender@liberty.edu

Daniel Marchant,
Vice President, dlmarchant@liberty.edu

Matthew Grannel,
Public Relations, mlgrannell@liberty.edu

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