Huddled in an intimate circle, half a dozen students discuss the explanatory roles of Christianity and science and how to question social norms and ideologies. One student raises his hand to talk about the “meta-structures” of reality, and others eagerly listen in. The weighty discussion would not seem out of place in a Contemporary Civilization classroom or the hallway of a first-year dorm, but the students here are not Columbia undergraduates: They’re students at Elizabeth Irwin High School attending the inaugural meeting of the school’s philosophy club.
