Mission Statement

Anamnesis is the student-edited philosophy journal of Colorado College. The journal publishes philosophical undergraduate essays from colleges and universities nationwide. Colorado College students founded the journal in order to give their peers a taste of what the discipline can be at its best. In line with this goal, we aim to publish clearly written, elegantly argued essays. We also strive to publish essays that directly pertain to the most interesting, difficult, and pressing issues in both philosophy and our lives.

Letter from the Editors 2020

This year, for the fifth volume of Anamnesis, we released our call for papers without a specific theme in mind. True to the vision of the journal’s founders, we sought to publish rigorous and accessible essays that made thoughtful arguments and raised relevant questions. It is our belief that we have done that to the very best of our abilities. Despite the absence of an explicit theme, this year’s essays ended up sharing some notable common elements. Each in their own way, these three essays and one poem all ponder issues of freedom, autonomy, and constraint. In the first essay, Colorado College student Ying Wang raises questions and fears about the existential significance of death, the ultimate and inevitable constraint on our lives as we know them. Yuezhen Li, attending the University of Chicago, then gives an analysis of Marx’s early critique of capitalism wherein Marx focuses on alienation and the deprivation of human freedom. In the third essay, Khalid “Kai” Davis of Macalester College makes a case for physician-assisted dying on the grounds that, in certain cases, the practice maximizes freedom and autonomy. This year, the journal ends with a poem written by Spencer Janney, also a student at Colorado College. His poem, “The Seed,” ponders the organic metaphor of Hegel’s dialectic, the unfolding of Spirit towards freedom.

Given the unfamiliar moment that we are experiencing in the Spring of 2020, it is a real joy to still be able to publish Anamnesis this year. We extend our well-wishes to the Colorado College community and beyond.