Sydney’s Philosophy in the Café - Philo Agora

Our 2012 program is being introduced this year by  Dorothy Rowe at Gleebooks, Glebe Point Rd on Tuesday February 7th (from 6.00 pm). Dorothy's talk has current resonance as Australia comes to term with its poor history of dealing with mental illness: "What mental disorder have you got? The implications of the medicalisation of ordinary life."

Dorothy Rowe is a leading Australian psychologist and writer.  Through her writings she has shown how we each live in a world of meaning that we have created out of our past experiences.  She applies this understanding to important aspects of our lives, including emotional distress, happiness, growing old, religious belief, politics, money, friends and enemies, extraverts and introverts, parents, children and siblings, and most recently, why we lie.

The language of the DSM 5 ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the DSM 5)  where every aspect of our lives has been turned into a psychiatric problem and has seeped into the language of health professionals, especially those concerned with mental health. Instead of talking about how we live, feel and think using the richness of English, our experiences are turned into a pathology that needs to be cured. The implications are widespread.

We start at 6 for 6.30pm, Tuesday, February 7 at Gleebooks, Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Make a booking by ringing Gleebooks on 9660 2333.  Mention your Philoagora connection to receive your ticket for the reduced price of $7.

 

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In March we revert back to our cafe format, meeting once again at The Last Drop cafe in Dulwich Hill on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm at the Lastdrop Café at 538 Marrickville Road, Dulwich Hill.
 

 

Tuesday, March 6, Sam Alexander proposes Two Additional Testaments.

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For two millennia we have had the Old and the New Testaments. The old represented the Judaic tradition, whilst the new chronicles the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus. What Sam Alexander espouses is a Hellenistic Testament, paralleling the Old Testament, that recounts the strong philosophical traditions leading up to the time of Jesus, and a Modern Testament, which includes texts from the past two thousand years that are rich in both ethical and historical content, that in reading, would help make the reader better positioned to live a more enlightened life.

 

Members of the audience will have the opportunity after the talk to each suggest a single text from both eras, but will of course be expected to justify their inclusion.

Sam Alexander is a technologist starting as a PMG technician in the 60's, a large systems computer engineer in the 70's, a money market systems consultant in the 80's, an equipment manufacturer in the 90's, a retailer in the 00's, and self-opinionated in the teens. He also holds degrees in divinity and theology, and is a joint convenor of Philo Agora.
If you would like to give a talk at Philo Agora, please respond to this newsletter as we are still finalising our 2012 programme.

We look forward to your attendance and participation at either or both of the above events.