Elegant script, frayed edges, the occasional hole, and sketches of the man himself. Letters signed Voltaire, V, or—occasionally—Volt. Université de Sherbrooke professor Peter Lambert-David Southam has gifted McGill a stunning manuscript collection of 290 documents including handwritten letters, correspondences, and fragments of Voltaire’s work. Curated by Ann-Marie Holland in collaboration[Read More…]
Tag: Philosophy
Oh, the humanities
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every single employer in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a humanities graduate. The humanities graduate was spiteful. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. How do I turn from my degree and live?[Read More…]
Scenes from a conference
To prepare their readers for online conferences, The McGill Tribune unearthed scenes from various breakout rooms and class discussions over the last five years Gender Studies Yeah, I mean, and this is just speaking from experience, Judith Butler might be projecting a bit, don’t you think? Like we get that[Read More…]
Reason and the art of neuroscience
One of the major attractions of academia is the ability to make a career out of learning, where one can pursue a life reminiscent of ancient Greek philosophers or Renaissance polymaths. Of course, following one’s research passions depends on funding. Grant applications and email correspondence shape the everyday life of[Read More…]
A day in the life of a McGill samosa
Tales of love, loss, and learning.
Questioning the device we use to question
To kickoff the Science Undergraduate Society’s ‘Academia Week: To Science and Beyond,’ David Ragsdale, associate professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, explored questions on morality and neuroscience. Within every human head, there is a tangible organ associated with something fundamentally intangible: The mind. “Your brain is a physical[Read More…]
How to quit smoking like an existentialist
“I’m just going to use it to get through finals, but during Christmas break I’m going to quit.” This is how I explained my foolproof plan to abandon my Juul to my housemate at the end of last year. I do this with almost all the promises I make to[Read More…]
Letter to the Editor: The wrong elephant in the room
Morality and politics are inextricably tied. In Plato’s Republic, the political arrangement of the city-state serves to elucidate justice and the Good, positioning politics as ontologically prior to morality—a relationship that also seems to hold in Marxist thought. In utilitarian thought—and much of contemporary conceptions of politics— morality comes first[Read More…]
Tribune Tries: Death and cake
Death cafe provides a cozy space to contemplate mortality.
Combatting reluctance: Why is climate action so hard?
On March 22, Philip Kitcher, a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, discussed the difficulties of implementing climate change policy during the 2018 Mossman lecture. The lecture series, named after McGill alumnus and chemist Donald Mossman, seeks to raise awareness about scientific thought that is pertinent to solving the issues[Read More…]
