SUNY Oneonta Philosophy Students Tour United Kingdom

Thirteen SUNY Oneonta students are touring the United Kingdom for their class "The Philosophy of Life and Death," a course that examines the "big questions" about life and death, including their nature, meaning and value.

Accompanied by faculty members Daniel Patrone and Elizabeth Seale, the students have made stops in England, Wales and Scotland, all the while examining important conceptual and ethical questions concerning individual, social, and political responses to catastrophes and other existential threats; the rationality and significance of religious faith and the possibility of surviving the death of the body; and the treatment of the dying and the dead. This is a three-week trip, and students will return June 20.

Students have explored and discussed ancient religious practices surrounding death; beauty, illness and patient rights issues; death and suffering in art and entertainment; the meaning of suffering; and end of life care, among other related topics.

Students have visited Canterbury, Stonehenge, Bath, York, Edinburgh, Dover, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square, and attended a performance of Hamlet at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. While investigating many philosophical traditions, problems, perspectives, and arguments that transcend the common cultural and intellectual traditions of the United Kingdom, the students are exploring, in depth, the cultures, traditions, and histories of Great Britain.