The second Bilkent PhilFest, Turkey’s only large-scale philosophy festival, took place at Bilkent University on Saturday, September 23.
Organized by the Department of Philosophy, Bilkent Philosophical Society, Bilkent University Library and the Psychological Counseling and Development Center, the festival aims to bring together philosophy enthusiasts of all ages and to increase interactions between individuals interested in philosophy and publishing houses, associations and communities.
There were around 40 booths offering access to philosophy books from leading publishing houses, such as Doğu Batı, İletişim, Yapı Kredi, İş Bankası Kültür and İmge. Visitors from all over Turkey had the opportunity to meet and exchange information with more than 30 associations and societies, such as the Society for Women in Philosophy in Turkey, Turkish Kant Society, Evrim Ağacı, the Turkish Philosophy Foundation and the Turkish Logic Association. The festival area also included a philosophical visuals exhibit, including the winners of the PhilFest Generative AI Philosophical Image Contest.
PhilFest’23 started with a speech by Rector Prof. Kürşat Aydoğan, followed by talks on Thinking Philosophy as a Woman (Fulden İbrahimhakkıoğlu and Toros Güneş Esgün), Video Games and the Ethics of the Digital World (Erhan Demircioğlu), Philosophical Wanderlust: Non-Western Philosophies (Pelin Dilara Çolak), Bilkent Philosophy Student Acitivities, God as the Source of Morality (Enis Doko and Tufan Kıymaz) and Social and Political Epistemology in the Information Age (Ömer Aygün and Yurdagül Kılınç).
Prizes were then awarded in critical thinking and philosophical trivia. The festival culminated with an outdoor screening of the movie “Megamind.”
