| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Coordinator: | |
| When: | Monthly on Tuesday mornings 10:00 2nd Tuesday morning of the month |
| Venue: | (contact coordinator) |
There are four philosophy groups and Group 2 looks at topics with a scientific theme. (Group 1 discusses general topics in philosophy, 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.
The image above is "The Philosophers" by Pietro della Vechia, showing Ptolemy and Euclid, Greek philosophers of science. The image is in the public domain via Wiki Commons, and the original hangs in the Christ Church Gallery, Oxford
In Group 2 we don't follow a formal training course and we are not led by a tutor. We have studied the Philosophy of Science and discussed various science oriented topics - The Mind, Time, a scientific approach to religion, and various issues in Bio-Ethics. We revisited the basics of philosophy of science in "50 Philosophy of Science Ideas you really need to know" by Gareth Southwell. We have read to Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene". We have studied the philosophy of maths and Time and Bioethics. We discussed the Reith Lectures on AI. We completed a course on the Philosophy of Cognitive Sciences. We have read Jim Al-Khalili's "The Joy of Science" and followed Daniel Chamovitz' Coursera lectures on plant biology. We went back to AI and looked again at consciousness, moving on via left- and right- brain thinking to Kahneman's System 1 and System 2 thinking. We have been studying cosmology and wondering whether theories about the origins of the universe are science, or just another creation myth, and we followed that with a look at Religion and Science. After a few different topics we returned to time. We then took a deep dive into AI and its implications and what constitutes life. We are looking further into genetics and epigenetics.
Forthcoming meetings
Past meetings
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Thomas Kuhn pointed out that scientific progress is disjointed. Scientists cling on to theories, patching them up to explain "anomalies", until accepted wisdom is replaced by a new theory. So why is that going to last, and how can we trust scientific knowledge?
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Divine Grace was so important, it was a source of schism in the church. What exactly was / is it? Have we lost something valuable in these more secular times?
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A further session on why we have feelings and where they come from.
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Why do we have feelings and where do they come from - physically in our bodies and historically through evolution?
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It's not just your genes, but the environment they find themselves in. And should we interfere with genes to prevent inherited diseases? What about enhancing intelligence?
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Is it bioelectrical signals rather than the genome and epigenetically induced biochemical processes that carry the "design" for an organism?