The Philosophy Club explored crime and punishment in its Oct. 14 meeting, the first of two meetings focused on the topics in October.

Horror as a genre was previously discussed by the club a year prior. This year’s discussion, however,  diverged from horror as a genre to the  actual application of crime and punishment.

Layla Alaswad, Vicent Champean and Valerie Romero are three of the officers present at the meeting. 

The club generally follows open discussion forums in its operations as the promised short film by Matt Richards, “The Disappearance of Willie Bingham,” was the topic of discussion amongst the members for the meeting.

The short film follows a dystopian world in which certain crimes result in amputation over time as punishment.

The film prompted a discussion amongst the small group of approximately 10 participants about both the crimes committed and the equivalency of the punishment. 

Romero, a second-year student and officer, was responsible for the choice of film. Taking pride in their choice, they expressed the significance of the conversation prompted by the film. 

“So I think it’s very important ‘cause even though it’s more of like a contemporary film like fictional… But I think it’s important [to discuss this topic] ‘cause there’s some like a lot of aspects of those films and that like that topic there’s some truth for them… there’s some issues, there’s quite a bit of issues in the penal system I believe there’s a lot of not a lot of but there’s significant cases where there’s abuse of power,” Romero said.

The members present at this meeting explored these power imbalances freely, allowing for an open discussion. This open forum of philosophical discussion without class commitment was what founding member Alaswad cited as one of the reasons for the club’s creation.

Accessibility was her concern and the club aims to fill a hole that colleges and universities leave behind.

“And a lot of colleges don’t really care to like focus on philosophy as it’s kind of seen as a dying tradition,” said Alaswad. 

Delta doesn’t offer  philosophy AA to transfer degree or a philosophy degree program in general. This was a point made by Alaswad who said the club was assembled as a place for her and others to explore philosophy.

“So, I kind of made the Philosophy Club as an accessible way for people who are interested in philosophy but maybe don’t want to dedicate an entire class and their schedule or do anything super like advance into it they can get like a little bit of it in their like day to day life as a student,” said Alaswad.

The club aims to foster growth in critical thought through not just film but also literature. Romero and Alaswad said they hoped  people take away from this club a love of reading.  

“Like if you’re not interested in philosophy that’s perfectly fine but the big thing is that you are willing to read … I want to ensure that like when they transfer even if they’re like a completely separate major … I want them to be willing to read things that scare them, that are long, that are hard, that are difficult,” said Alaswad.

Romero gave a similar answer. 

“I  feel as though a lot of people aren’t interacting with sort of philosophy books or sort of older texts anymore, and I feel as though there’s a lot of good information there and especially themes that can be relevant still today,” Romero said.

The club will host its next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 28 discussing the same topic in Budd 407 at 12 p.m.