A Day at Camp
The PACT Summer Camp will explore the session theme through a weeklong series of fun, engaging activities. Each in-person day will include creative projects and learning activities around our beautiful campus, including our seminar room, lecture halls, and the Oval. Throughout the week, campers will have the opportunity to discuss the issues that matter most to them. In several sessions, campers will hear lively and interactive presentations from Ohio State professors on core philosophical questions. Still other sessions will explore our topic through examining practical scenarios through the eyes of leading philosophers around the world.
A typical in-person day will be split into several sessions, each lasting 1-2 hours. Campers are expected to arrive at camp every day by 9:00 a.m. at the latest. Campers will depart Monday-Thursday between 4:00 and 4:30pm. On Friday afternoon, parents/guardians are invited to a showcase featuring the week’s highlights.
2025 Session 1 Theme: Democracy and Justice
Questions we will explore through guest lectures from our world-class faculty, interactive discussions, media, and debates:
How can we live well together with people who disagree with us?
What keeps democracy from degrading into tyranny of the majority?
Can democratic decisions ever be unjust?
Is justice only a matter of fair procedures or does it also require certain outcomes?
How should we respond now to past injustice?
2025 Session 2 Theme: Science, Faith and Reality
Questions we will explore through guest lectures from our world-class faculty, interactive discussions, media, and debates:
- What is the nature of science?
- Are there important questions science can't answer?
- Is science aimed at truth or just at helping us to make useful predictions?
- Does God exist? Is belief in God a matter of reason or of faith?
- Can faith ever be rational?
- What is skepticism? Can it ever be rational?
- Do we have evidence that we live in a simulation or a multiverse? How do these ideas relate to questions about God?
Learn more about PACT:
Overview