The Philolexian Society of Columbia University

The Philolexian Society of Columbia University Founded by Alexander Hamilton and still filled with nerds today. Philo is Columbia University's oldest and classiest student organization.

Columbia's oldest club (literary and debate society) which holds weekly absurdist debates (Thursdays, Satow Room, 9pm) and publishes a literary magazine (Surgam). Formally established in 1802 by associates of Alexander Hamilton, but with roots reaching as far back as 1766, the Society promotes literary awareness and the art of rhetoric among its members, who have ranged from Allen Ginsberg to Jacq

ues Barzun. Over the years, Philo has evolved significantly; while we honor our predecessors, we don’t believe we’re living in the 19th century. We just think it might be fun to pretend. https://twitter.com/philo_society
https://www.instagram.com/philolexiansociety/

As we approach the end of the semester, we are all looking forward to a well earned break and moment of rest. Many of us...
05/01/2025

As we approach the end of the semester, we are all looking forward to a well earned break and moment of rest. Many of us will be flying across the country to visit family, abroad to spend time with friends, or even to another city in the NorthEast for work; and as we will plan our flights and book our airplane tickets, there is one thing on all of our minds: Bush.
Which is why that is precisely the topic of our final meeting for the semester.
Tonight is our Symposium, which is always the last meeting we host each term.
As is tradition, our topic is only one word, and the format will be more of a “stand in the circle free-for-all” than our typical structure.
Our topic - Resolved: Bush - can (and should) be interpreted in anyway you’d like. And I’m sure we’ll hear quite a few definitions of that word throughout the evening.

As always, we’ll be starting at 9pm (or maybe 11 minutes later?) and our ground zero for the festivities will be the Lerner Satow Room, 5th floor.
We hope that you’ll come out of the hedges, hop over the shrubs, and join us this evening! It’s not like you have something more important to do, like shave, right?

And as a bonus before the event, starting at 8pm is the launch party for Surgam, our literary magazine!
Because we're actually a serious and legit society, from time to time we do a little writing and do a little publishing.
Please join us in the Lerner Satow room to get a copy of the magazine, and hear some of our published members read some of their works, perhaps titled: “The Vampires Didn't Turn me Gay, I Turned the Straights into Vampires”, and “Jenga’s New Limited Edition is Titled ‘Building 7’”, and “This Song is Titled ‘I Got Dumped Over Frozen Yogurt’, Let's Open This Pit Up!”
Also someone probably drew a pretty picture that's in this edition of Surgam, and that's always fun to see.

K, thanks, see you then, byeee!! ❤️☀️⚡

Is Mr.Darcy evidence that women have loved a wet and pathetic man since the dawn of time, or could the classic love stor...
04/22/2025

Is Mr.Darcy evidence that women have loved a wet and pathetic man since the dawn of time, or could the classic love story be greatly improved by adding le****ns? Would DOGE try to get this book banned based on title alone? Come tell us this Thursday night at another rousing debate of the esteemed Philolexian society, 9pm in the Satow room.

Every four years, the Philolexian Society is recognized by the University to host the Philolexian Washington Centennial ...
04/17/2025

Every four years, the Philolexian Society is recognized by the University to host the Philolexian Washington Centennial Oratory Competition with a cash prize for the finest original speech on a patriotic theme. This year’s theme is ‘The Responsibility of the Average American’.

All undergraduates of the Columbia community are invited to submit their names to enter the competition for a chance at this year’s prize. Read the above post for the information needed to enter and feel free to reach out with any questions.

As Philos, we are asked to accept and believe quite a lot.Our professors ask us to believe that all interactions in rest...
04/16/2025

As Philos, we are asked to accept and believe quite a lot.
Our professors ask us to believe that all interactions in restaurants are an example of how Foucault viewed the world; our Geezers ask us to believe that when they were students they were both less absurd yet more fun; and even our friends, the Dis and the Phis each ask us to believe that the other is the problem: "All you need to know is that the Phis are upstanding student leaders, and the Dis can't read." / "The Dis are the core of student engagement at this school, and the Phis wear socks with shoelaces."

But some things we are asked to accept fall beyond the pale, and must be openly called out for the falsism that they surely are; which is why our debate this week is
Resolved: Not Sure I Believe the Whole Dinosaur Thing

Please join us this week to hear some of our members share their favorite dinosaurs (mine are Ankylosaurus and Stegosaurus) and others members openly call Steven Spielberg a liar.

This intellectual archaeological investigation on the truth behind excavation will be Thursday, 9pm - 11pm in Lerner Satow Room, 5th floor.

Be there, or be a future fossil to be turned into oil and extracted for fuel for my 1991 Ford F150. Her name is Athena and she appreciates your sacrifice.

calling all philos, near and far! today marks ten days until our 223rd annual dinner, and we want to see you there! if y...
04/16/2025

calling all philos, near and far! today marks ten days until our 223rd annual dinner, and we want to see you there! if you fancy a fancy evening in new york city, you want to rehash your glory days as a master of debate, or you simply love to support columbia’s oldest student organization…. all of those things can be accomplished with a ticket to annual dinner!

the evening will feature a speech from our honored guest, award-winning author (and Barnard alum) Rachel Cohn. food and drink will be served, and good times will be had.

our debate topic for the evening has been chosen, ‘resolved: all literature is fan-fiction of the Bible.’ so we recommend you start studying up on your poems, prose, and scriptures for your own speeches.

the link to RSVP and buy tickets can be found in our Instagram bio. see you soon!

Remember a few weeks ago when we asked you to submit your creative works to our magazine, SurgamWell, while we were read...
04/09/2025

Remember a few weeks ago when we asked you to submit your creative works to our magazine, Surgam
Well, while we were reading your stuff we started to notice a little running theme, and decided to explore that this week, which is why this week’s resolution is:
You Literally Cannot be a Good Poet Unless You Have Experienced Homosexual Urges.

Join us this Thursday at 9pm in the Lerner Satow room (5th floor) to find out which Philos might suddenly be available to be your date to one of the upcoming galas, and which Philos are too straight to be Emily Dickinson! 🤔🧐

Attention fellow Beats, Bums, and Bozoz, Philolexian is proud to be hosting our annual Beat Night TONIGHT!!We will be ha...
04/04/2025

Attention fellow Beats, Bums, and Bozoz, Philolexian is proud to be hosting our annual Beat Night TONIGHT!!
We will be harkening back to the 1950s and '60s, reading poetry, dressed in costume of the era, and rejecting the starving artist trope because we'll be artists having snacks.
We'll be in Lerner 555 starting at 9:30pm, and finishing the evening in front of Alma Mater at midnight reading a secret poem that will take about 30 minutes. (It's the same poem we read there every year, but I've never heard it, so it's a secret to meeeee)

Join us, man. Don't be a square, ya dig?

Join us this Thursday at 9pm in the Lerner Satow room (fifth floor) for our stump debate!!This will be structured a litt...
04/02/2025

Join us this Thursday at 9pm in the Lerner Satow room (fifth floor) for our stump debate!!
This will be structured a little differently than usual. We have a resolution with a blank in the statement, and each person will need to choose a random "fill-in" from previously submitted suggestions, and debate that stance.
This semester's is Resolved: There should be a Lego set of _______

I've provided a few suggestions here for Lego sets that I expect you'll see for sale this holiday season.

Interested in submitting something to the "fill-in" fishbowl? Great! We love people who make our job easier and fill up our fishbowl.
Just comment them here, or send us a private message, and we'll add your suggestions to the pool! Sorry we don't have a for you to submit it, we’re not an E-Girl.

Oh, and to the person who submits that same suggestion every semester no matter the stump resolution; we can't do it this semester either, I'm sorry. Yes it's hilarious, yes it goes with every stump resolution, yes we know everyone would be cool with it and laugh along; but it's 2025, times change, and the university administration might get upsetti-spaghetti if we get a little spicy.
Maybe next semester.

Yours in potentially cancelled,

-- Philo

Calling all Philo Geezers! 🧓👵Have you been waiting for an opportunity to take a night off from eating tapioca pudding an...
03/27/2025

Calling all Philo Geezers! 🧓👵

Have you been waiting for an opportunity to take a night off from eating tapioca pudding and going to bed at 7:30pm?
Well then brave the world beyond your living room walls and come back to Philo for Geezer Night, where we'll honor you, laugh with you, and do our best to keep the Phreshlings from making too much fun of you.

This Saturday, March 29th, 2025
8:30pm - 10:30pm in Uris Hall room 142

We'll see you there! (And if you bring your required glasses, you'll see us too 👓🍻🍷)

are moms the true gaslighters we should be worried about?  come find out tomorrow in the lerner satow room @ 9pm !!
03/26/2025

are moms the true gaslighters we should be worried about? come find out tomorrow in the lerner satow room @ 9pm !!

HEY! Do you write things that are straight 🔥 but would get you cancelled in the group chat?Well how about you publish th...
03/13/2025

HEY! Do you write things that are straight 🔥 but would get you cancelled in the group chat?
Well how about you publish them instead?!

Submit it to Surgam, The Philolexian Society's actual, totally legit, not being sarcastic, prestigious magazine.

We might even pay you an amount of money if your submission is printed!
How much money? I have no idea. Due to budget cuts our accounting is being done by a squirrel who traded one acorn for a monocle, and invested the other one in a smaller acorn, saying something about "the market is shifting to favor Small Cap Acorns!"

Don't miss our deadline of Saturday, March 27th at 11:59pm!

P.S. I personally encourage you to write at least one thing at 2am after a long evening of "relaxing" during Spring Break. You'll be surprised what you came up with.
Remember what Hemingway supposedly said...

Join us this week to voice your opinion on…. Flags. Okay we’re doing flags now. Cool. 🏴‍☠️🚩🏳️‍⚧️🏳️🏁🇮🇪
03/12/2025

Join us this week to voice your opinion on…. Flags. Okay we’re doing flags now. Cool. 🏴‍☠️🚩🏳️‍⚧️🏳️🏁🇮🇪

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New York, NY

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