Honors Introduction to Philosophy, taught by NASH Social Studies teacher Mr. Pirring, is a class that students deem as one the most interesting of their high school years. Primarily, the class’s many focuses center around the idea of perspective, whether that be through various outlooks on consciousness, religious ideologies, life’s purpose, or other big, hard-to-answer questions.
This idea of perspectives spans further than just the content within the class. Honors Introduction to Philosophy, like many other electives, is often taken as a result of previous students’ praise for the course. Their outlook on the class is a significant part of the influence for other students to take it as well.
This was the case for NASH senior Satrio Kusuma, who claimed his interest in the class came from “friends in the grade above when I was a junior talked about the class and the problems talked about in class.”
Kusuma, like those who recommended the class to him, enjoyed Pirring’s course last fall.
“There are definitely some interesting ideas and thoughts some students in that class have, but it allows you to access more people’s views,” Kusuma said. “Overall, I’d say it was a 10/10 class.”
Having already taken the class, Kusuma’s views on the course vary from those who just got started during the spring semester. The start of the course is a blank slate with very little to go off of. Many students do not expect their views to change or to be intrigued with certain topics that they know very little about.
“My favorite topic was God—so much to talk about and debate,” Kusuma said. “The topic made me go up to peers and ask them their own opinions on God. Everything that they said usually differed from everyone else, even if they did or did not believe in a god. Not only was I just very interested, it made my view on God change as well.”
Another unit that stuck out to Kusuma was Morals and Ethics. Though he did not know much about the topic, the class provided a good amount of information.
“Morals and ethics seem simple when you first see them,” Kusuma said, “but when we got in-depth into it, the philosophy of it made me really think about good and wrong. I even questioned my own morals and ethics.”
NASH senior Maren Hesseling, who just began the course in January, is eager to learn about new concepts.
“I hope the class will show me new perspectives on things that I haven’t thought much about,” she said. “The whole point is to make you think differently about things.”
Unlike Kusuma, Hesseling’s reasoning for taking the class was not based on recommendations from other students.
“I just wanted Mr. Pirring as a teacher again,” she said. “I had him for history, loved his teaching style, and then I went on the Southeast Asia trip with him as well. His philosophy class sounded interesting.”
