Newsletter The first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm from March 1, at the Lastdrop Café at 538 Marrickville Road, Dulwich Hill.
1st March - Tim Dean: Evolution and Moral Ecology
Why is it people of different moral persuasions - such as liberals and conservatives - just can't seem to see eye to eye on many issues? The latest research in evolutionary biology, moral and political psychology and game theory suggests a startling revelation: we have an evolved moral faculty, but that this faculty operates in different ways in different people - and it does so for very good evolutionary reasons. The end result is a 'moral ecology', with a vast plurality of moral approaches that enables us to respond to a wide range of environmental situations.
Tim Dean is a PhD candidate in philosophy researching evolution and moral diversity. He's also an award winning science journalist and editor of Australian Life Scientist magazine.
5th April - Mary Hendriks: Unlearning. Step 1 in becoming a Global Thinker
Learning is highly valued and throughout our lives, we are encouraged to add to our knowledge. But, in our modern world, do we understand what it means to UN-learn? Lao Tsu is reported to have said to attain knowledge, add things every day, to attain wisdom, subtract things every day.
Mary Hendriks will discuss how unlearning is the key to thinking globally, and how thinking globally is the path to effective sharing of this third rock from the sun. This talk includes references to the work of Mark Gerzon, from his recent book "Global Citizens, How our vision of the world is outdated, and what we can do about it".
Mary is a contemporary thinker who is passionate about the new energy era. Mary works with a company promoting renewable energy, and volunteers with solar and alternative technology organisations, and she also kayaks on Sydney Harbour.
3rd May - David Tribe: Words and Ideas
David will explore the meanings of words, and how the ideas behind them have changed overtime. He in particular will examine the philosophical content behind the many “isms” that plague our lives –atheism, agnosticism, capitalism, individualism, liberalism, scepticism, etc.
David is an author, lecturer, poet, and also a humanist. He has just published a book with this title, appearing on Late Night Live to discuss it. Other publications include One Hundred Years of Free Thought, and Nucleoethics, examining the underlying influences on ethical behaviour.
David is an author, lecturer, poet, and also a humanist. He has just published a book with this title, appearing on Late Night Live to discuss it. Other publications include One Hundred Years of Free Thought, and Nucleoethics, examining the underlying influences on ethical behaviour.
7th June - Peter Bowden: Existentialism
Peter Bowden will explore the underpinnings to this philosophy, drawing on Kierkegaard, Camus, Sartre and many others to ask the question on what is behind our existence. Whether we indeed have a purpose, or whether we are simply evolutionary accidents, leading largely to the “meaninglessness" of life, to adopt a Camus term.
Peter, one of the founders of PhiloAgora, lectures in ethics at the University of Sydney.