Sydney’s Philosophy in the Café - Philo Agora

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Welcome to Philo Agora for 2013.  Please note the changes to our location and day. 

We have moved to Berkelouw Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt.  The venue is upstairs above the book shop.  There is free parking (up to 2 hours) across the road in the Norton Street carpark.  For the first meeting couple of meetings there won't be any coffee available so bring along your own coffee.  Admission charge will be $5.

Secondly, we will be meeting on the first Thursday of the month at 7.15 pm.  Try to get there beforehand to be seated before the talk starts.    

June  6th: Barry Rafe on  "American Pragmatism"

For over 2000 years philosophers have been arguing about the nature of Truth and Knowledge. The American pragmatists claim that most of these arguments are abstract and 'empty'.

 

American Pragmatism is a philosophical movement originally developed by Charles  Peirce and William James. It is  distinguished by the doctrine that the meaning of an idea or a proposition lies in its observable practical consequence. The pragmatic method is a way of settling metaphysical disputes that otherwise seem insoluble.

 

Barry is currently taking some time off from being a 'mature age' full time postgraduate student in philosophy at Macquarie University. His professional career is as an actuary and management consultant. Barry's philosophical research is focused around the question of moral progress and how modern liberal societies conceive of freedom and equality and assess the progressive essence of moral debates.

 

  

Thursday July 4th:  Tom Dougherty "Sex, Lies and Consent"

How wrong is it to deceive someone into sex by lying, say, about one’s profession? The answer is seriously wrong when the liar’s actual profession would be a deal breaker for the victim of the deception: this deception vitiates the victim’s sexual consent, and it is seriously wrong to have sex with someone while lacking his or her consent.

Tom Dougherty  researches and teaches moral and political philosophy at Sydney University . Originally from the UK he came to Sydney last year after a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University. He received his  PhD from M.I.T. and  B.A. from Oxford.