Our Experience Building Eastside Philosophy
Aren Loving and Jeffery Lou are the Co-Founders of Eastside Philosophy.
Discovering the Problem
Our generation has coined a term that has become widespread: “larping.” “Larping” is the act of being pretentious—in an obnoxious manner—by engaging in actions or conversation topics that serve the sole purpose of impressing those that are listening.
For example, suppose that I want to impress my science teacher, who has recently taken up a hobby of retail investing. I would learn a few keywords, or “buzzwords,” like CAPM, cross-sectional returns, and Black-Scholes pricing, and spew them out in front of my teacher. Although a person who has more than a few months of experience would see through it, my teacher would be impressed, and I would have successfully “larped.”
What does this have to do with philosophy though? Well, every time I debate a friend on a matter that we both care about, the moment I try to abstract important arguments and concepts by referencing previous research and literature, the conversation is killed. What might otherwise have been a genuine discussion is dismissed as “larping,” as though engaging seriously with anything philosophy is inherently pretentious or performative. That negative association points to a broader problem we have noticed among young people. Philosophy is often dismissed because the act of openly engaging with philosophy has itself acquired a stigma.
That stigma has consequences. We noticed that students (some of us included) who are interested in philosophy often suppress their ideas in classes, debates, and everyday conversations in fear of being received by eye rolls of annoyance or being labeled as a “larper.” We were already interested in philosophy; what was missing was a community where we could feel comfortable expressing our interest in it. That is the community we wanted Eastside Philosophy to become.
Another experience that shaped Eastside Philosophy came when we gave a public presentation at a STEM fair focused on artificial intelligence. We presented philosophical questions surrounding AI like moral patienthood and the ethics of artificial intelligence. Much to our dismay, relatively few people were interested in these topics, and some — including parents and teachers who hold graduate degrees in science — even questioned the relevance of theoretical thinking compared with the more practical and technical exhibits being presented around us.
After the event, we held an executive meeting to figure out what had gone wrong. We came to an important realization that we ourselves were not qualified enough to present philosophical issues with the depth and authority they deserved. Our small group of high school students was trying to explain complicated areas of philosophy and AI, and our own limitations could unintentionally create an incomplete or biased presentation of the ideas we wanted others to take seriously.
So rather than abandoning these subjects, we decided to change our approach. If we wanted students to engage seriously with philosophy, why not connect them directly with the people who study it?
That question motivated us to create Eastside Philosophy. Instead of remaining only a school club where students presented philosophy to one another, we began reaching out to professors, researchers, and scholars who could introduce students to philosophical problems from the perspective of people actively working on them.
Connecting Students With Philosophers
Our first major step in that direction came in November 2025 when we hosted a live conversation with Jeffrey Behrends, Director of Ethics at Harvard University, on artificial intelligence, moral responsibility, and the philosophical foundations of AI governance.
From there, we have hosted conversations with Erica Bigelow of the University of Washington, Graham Oppy of Monash, Joshua Knobe of Yale, David Christensen of Brown, Duncan Pritchard of UC Irvine, and Samuel Blitz of UC Davis, covering subjects from AI ethics and epistemology to free will and theology.
From a Club to Network
As our programming grew, so did our ambitions for Eastside Philosophy. Since then, our programs have reached more than 600 students in person and over 20,000 people online. What began as a philosophy club in a small town in Washington has developed into a broader student network. Today, ESP works with students beyond our original community, from the West Coast to the East Coast, with teams in Virginia and New York. We are also actively working to establish an ESP presence in the United Kingdom.
One of our goals is to make as many of these teams and clubs around the world as possible, so students should be able to build communities that reflect what interests them. One chapter might hold discussions about metaphysics and religion; another might focus on AI ethics; another might organize lectures, interviews, presentations, or philosophical debates. Eastside Philosophy would provide the network connecting them. Chapters could share their work, collaborate across schools and regions, access speakers and opportunities, and bring what they accomplish locally back to a larger community.
Where We Want to Go & How to Get Involved
A philosophy club doesn’t require dozens of students, a formal philosophy course, or an elaborate curriculum. It can begin with four or five students, a teacher willing to provide a classroom, and a question worth discussing.
If you already lead a philosophy club, we would love to bring your community into the Eastside Philosophy network. If your school doesn’t have one, we would love to help you start one. Students can organize independently in their own communities while gaining access to the larger network of students, scholars, events, and resources that ESP is working to build.
And as that network grows, we hope to do much more. We plan to organize larger opportunities that bring students across our chapters together, including philosophy essay competitions, new events, collaborative projects, and other programs that give young people opportunities to engage seriously with philosophy and share their own ideas.
Students shouldn’t have to wait until college to experience philosophy.