The Event:

The Meeting of the Minds is an annual theatrical event sponsored by the UWG Philosophy Program and the West Georgia Philosophical Society. Held each spring semester in front of a public audience, philosophy students discuss a philosophical topic and debate one another while portraying figures from the history of philosophy.

Debate topics and casts of previous Meeting of the Minds events include:

• 2018:  What is Truth?, debated by Plato (Alex Callahan), Camus (Avery Stanley), Hannah Arendt (Maria Constanza Garrido S.), and Jean Baudrillard (Tommy Jordan).  The debate was moderated by Taylor Gowans.
• 2017:  Do Race and Gender Really Matter?, debated by David Hume (Isabella Torres), Friedrich Nietzsche (Alex Clark), W. E. B. Du Bois (Joshua Dorsey), Frantz Fanon (West Poindexter), Simone DeBeauvoir (Lauren Blastow), and Iris Marion Young (Maria Constanza Garrido S.). The debate was moderated by Connor Pierce.
• 2016:  How Can We Attain Happiness?, debated by Epictetus (Evan Williams), Al-Ghazali (Alex Clark), Friedrich Nietzsche (Aaron Weddle), Albert Camus (Connor Pierce), and Martha Nussbaum (Charlette Woodall). The debate was moderated by Daniel Stanfield and directed by Aaron Weddle.
• 2015: What is Human Identity?, debated by Aristotle (William Storey), Gilles Deleuze (Alex Clark), David Hume (Aaron Weddle), Paul Ricoeur (Brittany Pilcher), Michel Foucault (James Butler), and Judith Butler (Jessica Holloman). The debate was moderated by Wesley Legan.
• 2014: Are We Free?, debated by St. Thomas Aquinas (James Butler), Friedrich Nietzsche (Cordero Schalk), Fyodr Dostoevsky (Jessica Holloman), Jean Paul Sartre (Sarah McGee), A. J. Ayer (Josue Piniero), and Annthony Duffey as the moderator and director.
• 2013: Is there Meaning in Human Existence?, debated by Aristotle (Alex Richardson), Boethius (Carine LaFortune), Mary Wollstonecraft (Savannah Grizzard), Friedrich Nietzsche (Joshua Moore), and Simone DeBeauvoir (Lindy Oller). The debate was moderated by Caroline Money and directed by Annthony Duffey and Amy Allen Hayes.
• 2012: What is the Best Form of Government?, debated by Plato (Elizabeth Mathis), John Locke (Alex Richardson), Karl Marx (Mitchell Cleaver), John Rawls (Joshua Moore), and Martha Nussbaum (Savannah Bergevine). The debate was moderated by Chazz Hall.
• 2011: What is Love?, debated by Confucius (James McIntyre), Plato (Ryan Washington), Shakespeare (Donny Smith), Kierkegaard (Elizabeth Mathis), Nietzsche (Daniel Vinson), and Weil (Lindy Oller). The debate was moderated by Kris Aper.
• 2010: What is the Real?, debated by Plato (Alice Barker), Augustine (Ace Mendez), René Descartes (Philip Brewer), John Dewey (Donny Smith), and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (Igor Chernoknizhnyy). The debate was moderated by Anna Potter.
• 2009: What are We Doing?: Technology and the Human Community, debated by Aristotle (Ace Mendez), Georg Hegel (Charles Bauch), Albert Einstein (Igor Chernoknizhnyy), Martin Heidegger (Philip Brewer), Hannah Arendt (Anna Potter), and Michel Foucault (Jordan Hendricks). The debate was moderated by Timothy Wright.
• 2008: What is Beauty?, debated by Plato (Sepp Helgeson), Thomas Aquinas (Shelley Donaldson), Immanuel Kant (Charles Bauch), Friedrich Nietzsche (Philip Brewer), Martin Heidegger (Matthew Tapley), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (Christopher Pollard). The debate was moderated by Timothy Wright.
• 2007: What is the Aim of Human Existence?, debated by Hannah Arendt (Emily Hattaway), Albert Camus (David Ellis), Ludwig Wittgenstein (Kevin Jones), Aristotle (Charles Bauch), and Soren Kierkegaard (David Sluder). The debate was moderated by Raquel Susach.
• 2006: Does God Exist?, debated by Baruch Spinoza (Jake Earl), Friedrich Nieztsche (David Ellis), Nishida Kitaro (David Sluder), Bertrand Russell (Jared Bissell), Soren Kierkegaard (Matt Lewis), and Hannah Arendt (Christina Tacoronti).