Interview with David Janssens! Our first iteration!
TheExtra
Issue 01— April 2017
April 5th Law & Politics Film Series: Haider
April 7-16 Study Trip
Your event here?
Haider is a 2014 Indian crime drama directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. The film is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set amidst the insurgencies and disappearances of civilians in Kashmir in the 1990’s. The film will be introduced by this year’s Willem Witteveen Fellow in Law and Humanities, literary scholar and poet Rakhshan Rizwan.
The annual study trip will take place from the 7th up to 16th of April. This year the destinations will be Budapest, Vukovar, Zagreb, Zadar and Ljubljana. On behalf of the Extra we hope all participants are going to have an amazing time and return to the common room safely.
6:30PM— 10 PM. Black Box Theatre
The Extra is part of Extra Muros, the study association for students of Liberal Arts and Sciences at University College Tilburg. Contact us at: Magazine@ExtraMuros.nl
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If you have an upcoming event which needs promotion amongst Liberal Arts students, send a message to Magazine@ExtraMuros.nl and we will see what we can do!
The Extra
Issue April 2017
David Janssens Interview P. 4 Gala 2017 P. 10
As we have only just begun the Extra is still looking for energetic additions to the team. At the moment we are a jolly team of 9 individuals however in order to keep this going we will need more community members .
What can we offer you?
The Extra is a place where any Liberal Arts student can vent their ideas and improve their writing skills. We hold a team of enthusiastic and motivated fellowstudents. If you aim to be an author and want to improve your skills or just have knowledge you wish to share, send an email to: Magazine@ExtraMuros.nl
Kings Day 2017 P. 11 Fun Facts with Casper P. 12
This month the Extra starts as an experiment of Extra Muros and its members. The current aim is to release this magazine on a monthly basis on an online medium. In order to keep doing this on a monthly basis and make this into a success, we need all the help we can get. We have chosen to release this magazine purely on digital scale on the basis of both economic and ecological reasons. Perhaps we can save a koala through the usage of digital distribution. Preservation of koalas should be a main point of interest in the mind of any individual. If you aspire to write for the Extra we expect you to have a loving heart for koalas as well. Because this is a first iteration we would love to hear your feedback. Any general advice or feedback on the magazine can be sent to Magazine@ExtraMuros.nl but feel free to approach our team at any moment.
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TheExtra
Why we need it and where we find it By Charlotte Steffen and Frederik Zwaan
As first interview for the Extra, we thought that sticking our nose in a teacher’s mind could give us good material. David Janssens, LAS teacher from the Tilburg School of Humanities, is specialized in ancient and medieval philosophy. David made himself available for an interesting conversation concerning the importance of philosophy in our daily life and where we can find it even when we least expect it.
How long have you been teaching philosophy? Almost 20 years - yes I’m that old haha…
And what was the first philosophy course that you taught? I gave the first philosophy course when I was still doing my PHD; it was a course on Max Weber, a sociologist – who was also a very philosophical sociologist. In the course of my PHD, I read some of his works: that’s how I got into teaching Max Weber. The first fullfledged thing was about philosophy of history. It was about how philosophy of history developed from the same Christian view of history
At one point of your life, you are like “I want to be a doctor, an astronaut… mum, I want to be a philosopher”. What got you into philosophy? What got me into philosophy was philosophy classes in high school. I was in a high school where philosophy was compulsory in the final three years, which is quite exceptional, not every country has that. I really enjoyed that. It was thinking about the questions that were asked: universal questions, questions
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that always applied. Later on, I found a passage saying “philosophy is the business of the won’t go away questions”- you know, the questions that always return. Whatever solution you find, they will come back. That is how I got interested in philosophy. When I had to choose a universitywell, Liberal Arts did not exist at that time: if it had existed I would have done it, definitely- I wavered between doing history, languages and philosophy. It turned out that philosophy had the smallest group, it was a very small crowd: we started with 8 students in the first year and we ended up with 3- yeah, that’s what philosophy does to you. It was really a close call, I thought “OK, let’s just try philosophy”. That is how I ended in philosophy.
That mindset is very Liberal Arts “let’s just try this”… Yes exactly, I had so many interests: I liked history, sociology, psychology… If something like Liberal Arts had existed, I would have definitely chosen that.
The Extra Name your top three philosophers Oh that is a hard one. Uhm… number one would be Homer, even though we are not sure who Homer is or if he even existed: so that’s a good number one. Number two Shakespeare: he is both a dramatist and a philosopher, just like Plato. And lastly Emily Dickinson: she is very philosophical in her own way.
1. HOMER What has changed about the teaching of philosophy from the time you started until now? That’s a good one… That is a hard one. It’s difficult because if you look at the subjects that I have been teaching in the past 20 years, the way I teach has changed depending on what I teach. Just to give an example, I used to teach philosophy of law to law students: that was 500/600 people. And I’m not a lawyer, so I mostly discussed theories, tried to make them concrete and make them work with it, but then you are passing around all the perspectives on law. Philosophy of law is a very technical business: it’s a discipline within philosophy. I did that for 9 years and then I became involved with Liberal Arts and I also started teaching ancient and medieval philosophy in the philosophy department. What I like about ancient and medieval philosophy, is that they don’t look at philosophy so much as a body of doctrines or theories, it’s really a way of life. What I really appreciate, is that it is not just about knowing the right concepts but also about thinking “how should I live?” That change from philosophy of law to classics and ancient and medieval philosophy- which was about classics and ancient literature- has also changed the way I look at philosophy and I think that it also changed my teaching. You know, the questions that philosophers ask are not just out there, they are in here as well. They are the questions you should be asking if you want to live a meaningful life: without there being any ready-made answers. It’s a coincidence. ５
2. SHAKESPEARE 3. EMILY DICKINSON According to you, outside the university… where and how do you use/find philosophy? You find philosophy wherever you go. I have the focus on ancient philosophy, which focuses on the recurrent questions that have to do with what we are and how we live as humans, compared to gods and animals. Those basic “won’t go away questions”. The funny thing is that the more you deal with these questions, the more you keep seeing them popping up. For me this is very interesting, as there seems to be something very permanent about these questions, as they are always returning. Somehow, that is comforting because you know wherever you go you will always run into the same issues and questions. In that way, philosophy always crops up, even if I read the news or deal with students. It gives you this feeling that somehow these questions are always around us.
TheExtra
Any advice for future philosophers?
Nietzsche regards a lot of art and philosophy as snobbish, as related to it being all theory and not really related to practicality. Is philosophy going too much into theory?
Try to find out what makes you whole. I know that sounds rather cryptic. Whenever we do something that we think is good, it is because we think that it completes us... whether it is a passion that we pursue or a person that we love. But really, ask yourself the question on what completes you. I think Socrates’ answer would be: going around and asking questions.
The professionalization of philosophy has led to many sub-disciplines…such as ethics, philosophy of medicine, philosophy of sports. Every discipline has their own journals. I do think that this shows that it has become more theoretical. It is all about giving arguments, which is very interesting but philosophy tends to forget that the reason why you are giving all these arguments is because, going back to Socrates, you want to give an account of your life as a good life. Hyper-specialization runs the risk of losing this from view. Eventually, every argument that you could give in any sub-discipline of philosophy is an attempt to answer two questions. What is a good life and what is real? Sometimes philosophers tend to lose that from view. That’s where I side a little with Nietzsche, who said that we have to put philosophy back with its feet on the ground.
But then again, what if it is something negative that makes you complete? Well, then the question is: does that really make you complete then? We may be mistaken in what we think completes us. That’s why some people may do drugs or have the wrong friends or have a complete wackoplans and ambitions, because they think that it actually completes them. That’s why I said: “think really well about what completes you, because that is actually really hard”.
“Think really well about what completes you because that is actually really hard” The Extra would like to thank David Janssens for the nice conversation and for making it a good first interview. ６
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The Extra Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies! What you do:
around 30 min
Preheat the oven at 180° C. Melt the butter (unless you want to knead the dough) and mix it with all of the ingredients except for the chocolate sprinkles. I usually mix it with a fork. Add the sprinkles when the dough isn’t warm anymore (unless you like your chocolate melted). Your dough is all set.
Ingredients 1 egg 2 cups of flour 1 cup of sugar
Now grab a baking tray and put baking paper on it. Then make tiny balls or blobs their size should be in between a ping pong ball and a grape, whatever size cookie you prefer. When you put the balls on the tray make sure the balls have at least 2 cm space between them.
1 package of baking powder 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract ¾ cup butter ½ cup of chocolate sprinkles (Use hagelslag, real chocolate needs to be cut and that takes time)
Next put them in the oven for 10-12 minutes. They should still be soft when you take them out, this way they will be soft when they cool down.
You can just grab an average mug for the ‘cup’. As long as you use the same size mug for all the ingredients.
Now you’re done! If you aren’t sure whether or not it is safe; I have been feeding people these cookies for years and no one died. Good luck! Author: Joya Drenth
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TheExtra
February 23, a day to which many of us had been looking forward for quite a while, and it had finally come! The Liberal Arts Gala this year was not just an occasional one, instead, this year’s twist turned it into a real Masquerade Ball. Everyone, either male, female, transgender or [insertyourpreferredgender] was asked to put on any mask they liked, and knowing Liberal Arts, this challenge could be taken extremely seriously.
Of course, many of us put much effort in the looks of the gala night and could not wait to steal the show looking gorgeous, and if there is one thing we all remember from that night; everyone looked amazing! Girls put on their most beautiful, extraordinary and especially sexy dresses or jumpsuits and guys suited up in smokings with neck- or bowties looking, indeed, smoking hot. Unfortunately, not all visitors of the gala felt the need to put on a mask upon arrival, although the ones who did compensated exceedingly. Whereas many showed up with elegant classic masks with a touch of glitter (and glamour) here and there, some showed up with real festive masks and we even had a guest wearing a mask which covered his whole face, turning him into Mr. Anonymously… Like every year, the gala is the ultimate opportunity for 3rd year exchange students who just came back to reunite and share experiences with each other and for first years to have their real LAS gala, which will stay with them for ever. I can hear you thinking, what about the second years?
Well, history has shown that second years know how to party, have fun and especially, how to flirt (yes, it is time for the juicy gossip). With the start of the open bar an endless flow of liquor began pouring and as alcohol levels went up, consciousness went down, resulting in an interesting turn of events. Dancers started dancing, flirts started flirting and from dancing and flirting came kissing. As an author and owner of all the juicy stories, I know the names and guilty faces, but what happens in Dudok, stays in Dudok. One little cue never hurt anyone; there was some cross-year kissing with representatives of all different years!
Big thumbs up and credits the organization of the gala this year: The Social Activities Committee, led by superwoman Nigina Nourzai. In cooperation with the Extra Muros Board and Dudok they organized a fantastic gala, with DJ V-Delicious who got everybody on the dancefloor and photographer Stella B (a)ezemer who captured everyone looking pretty. Off the LAS gala of 2018! １０ Linda
Kemmeren
The Extra King’s day 2017 Tilburg You might want to stay in Tilburg for King’s Day this year, since the royal family will visit our beautiful city on their special day! Regardless of your views on the monarchy or King Willem Alexander’s drinking behaviour, it should be worth it to spend the day in Tilburg. A quick look at why Tilburg is the place to be on April 27:
Catch a glimpse of the king in person
Catch a glimpse of the real king
Not only does the king apparently have the genetic deficiency to have blue blood, he is also a very capable diplomat. His preferred way of dealing with world issues? Beer. There’s a little bit of Willem Alexander in all of us. Also, his recent dab signifies that he is down with the kids.
Guus Meeuwis will perform with some other celebrities from Tilburg (my money is on Roy Donders). It is not clear when it will exactly kick off, but it should be before 13:00 because the royal family arrives in Tilburg at 11:00 and will stay in Tilburg for two hours. Kedeng ke-fucking-deng.
You don’t have to take the last/first train home You also won’t have to sleep outside or spend the night with some stranger whose only selling point is his or her bed. It might also save you some money, depending on whether or not you have free public transport or not (do note that only people who travel for free in weekends are free of charge during holidays. If you travel for free during weekdays, you’ll get a discount).
There’s enough to do when the royal family has left There’ll be a big party at the Korte Heuvel, a foodtruck festival at the Pieter Vreede Square if you feel like eating dodgy but overpriced food, a market and an old-timer rally at the Leijparkfestival in, unsurprisingly, Leijpark and a free event organised by 013 in the Veemarktstraat.
Isn't Tilburg always the place to be? Tilburg is home to the famous can kicker, Guus Meeuwis and a zoo. There’s not much else a person could wish for.
Gerrit Altena １１
TheExtra
Did you know…. Koalas
Did you know…. Crocodilians
Did you know… koalas actually hug the lower ends of trees in order to reduce body heat?
Did you know… there is no actual bird that finds its food in the teeth of the crocodile? Sources as early as Aristotle and Herodotus spoke of this and to this day it is a commonly believed myth.
Did you know… like other marsupial animals, the young of the koala are named Joeys? Did you know… koalas have been around for about 25 million years? As a comparison, humans have only existed for about 200.000 years.
Did you know… Aboriginals deemed the koala (or KUR-BO-ROO) to be an animal of high status and sagacity that had the power to steal all the water.
Did you know…. Food Recipes
Did you know… the name crocodile comes from the Greek kroko and deilos, which translates to ‘pebble-worm’? Did you know… an average Nile crocodile eats no more than 50 times a year? Did you know… crocodilians have existed for about 200 million years, meaning they have witnessed the rise and fall of the dinosaurs?
Did you know… the earliest author of a cookery book appears to have been Mithaecus which has been referred to by Socrates? Did you know… the earliest surviving cookbook is the ancient Roman Apicius’ De Re Coquinaria, from the first half of the first century A.D.? It included recipes like stuffed pumpkin fritters and rose wine. Did you know… Andrew Boorde in the 16th century already stressed the importance of good cooking and health care, even suggesting that the physician and the cook ought to consult together.
Did you know… Greek gastronomy is the direct ancestor of the food culture of Italy and the Romans? This means that we do not only owe them credit for our science and philosophy, but even for our food.
Did you know… That there are many more facts that I did not include in this text? If you are interested in topics such as the mating behavior of Koalas or how they raise their young, or the speed at which crocodilians can attack and the best way to avoid them, or just some links to several of the oldest cookery books that have been preserved feel free to send an email to Magazine@ExtraMuros.nl or approach me, Casper Arends, in person in the common room. １２
The Extra
Joya’s top three novels of the month! 4.29 on goodreads.
Ender’s Game Author: Orson Scott Card
The 6-year-old Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is the result of a genetic experiment. He plays computer simulated war games to train to become the military genius that Earth needs in a war against an alien enemy. (This is also a movie but read the book first)
This is a story about a fakir/con-man called Ajatashatru Oghash Rathod. He comes from a small village in India and goes to Paris. He wants to obtain a brand new nailThe Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir who got Trapped in bed in a not very legal way. It doesn’t turn out the way he hoped and he ends up going on a tour throughout an Ikea Wardrobe Europe. Author: Romain Puértolas
3.27 on goodreads.
3.95 on goodreads.
Dear World, How Are you? Author: Toby Little
When Toby was 5 he decided to send a handwritten letter to someone in every country together with his mother. He wrote to people all over the world and they responded. In this book you can read the letters.
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TheExtra
Don’t be grumpy
We will be back! １４
Everyone can contribute to the Extra! We would like to thank all of the individuals that have contributed to this edition of the Extra. It was a great start and a bigger success than we could have expected for a first iteration. Let us hope that the Extra will continue to grow larger in the future!
Those that contributed this time Gerrit Altena Second year Liberal Arts student - Law major
Casper Arends Second year Liberal Arts student - Social Sciences major
Joya Drenth First year Liberal Arts student
Linda Kemmeren Second year Liberal Arts student - Social Sciences major
Charlotte Steffen Second year Liberal Arts student - Humanities major
Frederik Zwaan Second year Liberal Arts student - Social Sciences major
If you are interested in contributing to future iterations please send an email to Magazine@ExtraMuros.nl. We are still looking for authors, editors, photographers and as much creative input as possible! Every bit of help is welcome, so do not hesitate to join us! ďź‘ďź•
TheExtra
TheExtra
Free for Online Distribution. １６
Part of Extra Muros, study association of LAS Tilburg.