Luke Jenson compared the ideas of Sartre and de Beauvoir on the topic of "situated freedom,"  arguing well that even Sartre accepts the notion that context makes a great deal of differences in human choices.

Nick Siler compared Nietzsche to Karl Barth on the topic of the validity and value of Christianity, pointing out that Barth shared some of Nietzsche's opinions of the actual behavior and belief of some Christians.

Scott Wagner described the issues involved in deciding whether to try juveniles as adults, pointing out various aspects and problems, including the difficult mixture of considerations of social protection, deterrence, rehabilitation, and responsibility.

The presentations were clear, interesting, and stimulating.

Two notions of freedom: 1) spontaneity and 2) reflectively conscious self-governance.

The notion of freedom that comes most easily to us is a spontaneity free from restrictions. It is close to Hume's definition, of ability to be free from restraint. This is also one of Schopenhauer's definitions. But note that spontaneity may be both the most highly determined (and thus really unfree) and also least specifically human kind of freedom (least self-consciously aware). When we act spontaneously, doing as we freely choose to do at the moment, we are most likely to be guided by various nonconscious forces - habits, previously learned values, compulsions, genetic tendencies, ideologies. These forces are at work in all of us. When we make a spontaneous choice without further thought, these forces control us.

The notion of reflectively conscious self-governance may be far from what we usually think of when we think of being free. It smacks of too much 'control' to connote real freedom. But look at the following and consider when it is we are in the position of making choices that give us the most power over our own lives.

• The major aspects of inner freedom:

• Forces at work, both conditioning our capacity, guiding us thereby to certain kinds of choices, and effecting whether we can carry out our choices.
• Unconscious forces: genetics, culture, individual psychology, as discussed in the form of evolutionary psychology, unnoticed cultural values as well as ideology, unquestioned religious assumptions, social patterns, individual stages of development, personal habits developed through life, compulsions, and various emotional states.
• Conscious forces: level of explicit knowledge of alternatives, explicitly conscious values and explicit basis for choosing those values, habit of reflection on possible consequences (and the knowledge from experience to perceive a rather full range of possible consequences).

 
• The habit of making self-reflectively conscious decisions, made in view of possible consequences, and as judged in the light of explicit values. This includes an awareness of the resources of 2.b, available to attempt to recognize the possible influences of 2.a and take 2.a into account, and then judging what to do. This can include setting up a self-training program for oneself to make the wisest decision both possible and effective. Making it effective may require choosing various means to overcome nonconscious elements such as compulsions (including addictions), habit, and strong emotional bias, etc.