Sydney’s Philosophy in the Café - Philo Agora

We are well settled into our new cafe in Dulwich Hill.  We look forward to you joining us.

September 7 Tony Muscio   Free will
 
The concept of free will underlies much of what we think about ourselves and what we attribute to others and their motivations. Free will is fundamental to our system of justice. Yet many circumstances arise when it is hard to be sure we really are free to choose. Cases such as "Not guilty by reason of insanity", or the defense "I was ordered to do it" bring this concept into question. Even the rationalist or scientific view points raise issues such as whether the universe is deterministic or indeterminate, does the uncertainty in quantum theory make free will irrelevant ?

Common sense often tells us we have free will but analysis quickly brings this assertion into doubt.

Classical philosophy has often taken for granted the existence of God when considering free will. If an individual has the power to seek redemption surely free will must exist. Is this a supporting argument or a red herring ?

Tony will present a set of ideas and tools to use when considering these and related questions, with reference to the major schools of thought on free will. He will also present some ideas drawn from Information Theory, Cosmology, Complexity (Chaos) theory and science and offer a view point for you to consider or criticize.

October 5  Matt del Nevo – Lou Salome and Freud
 
Russian born Lou Salome was one of the great feminists of the twentieth century. Nietzsche proposed to her, she worked with Freud at the inception of psychoanalysis, and she had a love affair and passionate relationship with the twentieth century's greatest lyric poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, until his death in 1926. She was a pupil of Sigmund Freud and his associate in his creation of psychoanalysis). She was the first female psychoanalyst and the first woman to write psychoanalytically on female sexuality.
 
The Freud talk is the last of three talks on the influence of  Louise Andreas-Salome (1861-1937). The previous two talks are on our website www.philoagora.com/. Lou Salome wrote 15 novels plus philosophical and psycho-analytical works. With her indifference to moral conventions and insatiable intellectual curiosity, Lou Salome challenged the gender roles of her day. Each talk - Nietzsche, Rilke, Freud – is complete in itself. 
 
Matt was for many years the convenor of the philosophy café at Berkelouws books. He is full time faculty lecturer in philosophy at the Catholic Institute and has recently published some of his philosophical thoughts in The Valley Way of the Soul.

November 2 Skye Nettleton   Sartre on Romantic Loving Relationships 
 

Skye will discuss the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, a 20th Century existential Don Juan, who describes romantic loving relationships as a sado-masochistic battle of consciousnesses.   

Skye has an MBA from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management and a background in finance and management consulting.  She is currently undertaking her PhD on the topic relating to her talk, also at Macquarie.

Since Skye last spoke at Philoagora she has become the mother of a new bouncing baby.  

Congratulations from all of us - study and a new baby is a formidable combination.