| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Coordinator: | |
| When: | Monthly on Friday mornings 10:00 Third Friday of the month (usually) |
| Venue: | (contact coordinator) |
Of the four philosophy groups, this is the original group and it discusses general topics in philosophy and Group 2 looks at topics with scientific themes. Group 3 followed a "Crash course" to get into the subject, and now Group 4 is following the same path. New members are welcome to join the most appropriate group. Contact one of the co-ordinators to just come and see what it's like, and if you might be interested.
In Group 1 we read about what questions various philosophers have addressed, the subject areas of philosophy and tools and methods. We do not follow a formal training course and is not led by a tutor, but we do recommend some basic texts. Everyone is encouraged to explore other books or the internet and bring anything further of interest to share at the discussion. It may sound very intense and cerebral, but actually we are just looking for readily accessible ways to get hold of the best attempts to answer the questions that have been asked through the ages and still puzzle us now.
We take things slowly - we just watch the videos or read a chapter or two, then discuss one week of the course each month. If these topics might interest you, contact the coordinator.
ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE
We watched and discussed a series of podcasts on Ethics by Marianne Talbot of Oxford University. Then we decided we wanted a broad if fairly shallow study of philosophy, so we chose to work through Nigel Warburton's "Little History of Philosophy". We then identified "The Philosophy Book" published by Dorling Kinnersley and read from that to take our studies into the modern and contemporary era. We moved on to "The Philosophers Toolkit" by Baggini and Fosl, and then we read and discussed various philosophical topics and gravitated through Aesthetics and the philosophy of beauty and art to Identity and Personhood. We completed a MOOC on Modernism and Postmodernism and looked at Indian Philosophy. We went back to Ancient Greece. After an unproductive dip into ontology, we read four great political thinkers and studied four women philosophers. We studied Hellenistic philosophers and the Philosophy of History. We followed lectures by Iain McGilchrist expanding on his left brain / right brain theme then moved on to Chinese philosophy. We are looking at truth, trust and beliefs.
Forthcoming Meetings
Previous Meetings
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Thomas Aquinas succeeded in integrating the rational approach of Aristotle with Christianity and matters of faith, even though Islam rejected this.
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The mediaeval "Scholastic" philosophers emerged from the dark ages and worked in the church and the network of emerging universities across Europe to bring religion and Aristotle's rationality into harmony.
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Aristotle stands alongside Plato as a huge lasting influence on human thought in physics (science) metaphysics (reality and identity), logic and ethics. We sought to understand his key contributions.
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"Democracy does not contain any force to check the constant tendency to put more and more on the public payroll. The state is like a hive of bees in which the drones display, multiply and starve the workers, so the idlers will consume the food and the workers perish.”
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You can present a good, logical case for your proposal, but don't expect that it will persuade anyone to change their mind and agree with you!
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We discussed how we form our beliefs, and why they can be very difficult to change.