On Saturday Oct. 26, Associate Professor of Political Science Jonny Thakkar hosted “The Meaning of Democracy,” the first event of the academic year in his Night Owls series. The guest speaker was Daniel Wodak, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, who discussed the limitations of democracy as well as potential new policies to improve it in the U.S.
Night Owls originally began in September 2023 based on an event with the same name at the University of Chicago, where Thakkar went to graduate school. It is a series of late-night, faculty-led philosophical discussions from 8 to 11 p.m on select Saturday evenings. The events start with an interview between the invited speaker and Thakkar. After that, the speakers answer questions from the audience. Previous events in the series include a conversation answering “Is Ambition Ugly” with UChicago Associate Professor of Philosophy Agnes Callard, “Becoming a Politician” with Pennsylvania State Senator Nikil Saval, and an emergency event on pacifism with Peace and Conflict Studies Department Chair Sa’ed Atshan ’06 following the events on Oct. 7.
The Night Owls series has generally been well attended by students who appreciate, among other things, the late-night timing due to the increased accessibility of the events. “There are so many [colloquia] that I can’t go to because they’re during my classes,” said Nox Tan ’28. “But nobody’s having class from 8 to 11 p.m., and I really appreciate the opportunity to attend.”
Students also view the series as a wonderful opportunity to engage with new ideas in a less formal setting than the classroom. “I appreciate the opportunity to relax and enjoy intellectual discourse and a sense of learning without the stress of traditional academia,” said Elijah Nepomoceno ’28.
Many topics discussed in Night Owls explore ideas that directly relate to students’ lives, ultimately hoping to get students more intellectually involved with philosophy even if they don’t have an academic background in the subject. Furthermore, they provide the opportunity to have intellectual discussions without the pressure of coursework.
According to Thakkar, “It doesn’t have to be about getting grades. It’s just because we’re interested — we’re intellectually motivated people who find it exciting to talk about these things.”
The events have gotten fairly high turnout, often having anywhere from 30 and 100 attendees. The events are very casual, and students are welcome to drop by and leave whenever they want. At Saturday’s event, many students even dropped by while wearing their Halloween costumes on their way to and from parties and social happenings.
When talking about the future of the series, Thakkar said he doesn’t currently have any specific direction, but hopes to keep the format open for whatever new topics might be addressed. He believes that the main value of the discussions is the opportunity for students to explore new ideas that they haven’t been exposed to.
“I’m having conversations where I’m learning about things that I wouldn’t have otherwise thought about because they’re not directly my area of research or my area of teaching,” Thakkar said.
In the future, Thakkar’s main goal is getting more involvement from student groups of different backgrounds, and creating a space for more discourse between people with differing opinions. “Many of the more philosophically minded students who come to this kind of event are often the ones who don’t have particularly strong opinions,” Thakkar said. “It would be great to get more engagement from students who are more politically involved.”
Ultimately, Thakkar believes that exposure to philosophical topics is very valuable for students of all backgrounds and interests because philosophy encourages people to question everything.
“For Aristotle, philosophy was the highest form of leisure,” he said. “These talks should be an end in and of itself.”
