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.
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.
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Jesus, and a Modern Testament, which includes texts from the past two thousand years that are rich in both ethical and historical content, that in reading, would help make the reader better positioned to live a more enlightened life.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.
Tuesday. April 3. Michael Robertson : The problem of evil
The problem of evil has confounded moral philosophy since antiquity. At best, evil can be construed as the opposite of good, although in the light of contemporary neuroscience, evil could now considered as a meta-phenomena of disorders of empathy. Taking Hannah Arendt's observations of Adolf Eichmann as a starting point. Michael will expand the concept of evil from that of failure of moral reflection to a more integrated model that considers perspectives from neuroscience, moral relativism, psychoanalysis and social contract theory. Michael will argue that evil is a contextual phenomenon which is most clearly understood as empathic failure in a particular setting at a particular point in history.
Michael Robertson is a psychiatrist and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatric Ethics at the University of Sydney. His PhD examined ethics in relation to psychological trauma .His current research interests focus upon involuntary psychiatric treatment. He has appeared on "The Philosopher's Zone", "All in the Mind" and "Background Briefing" on ABC Radio National. He is currently working on his third book, a communitarian approach to ethics in mental health care"
May 1 Peter Bowden. The moral failure of moral philosophy
Moral philosophers argue that their teaching leads to action – “that people… not only think but act with regard to moral matters” Peter Bowden argues that it does not. He will present six practices that are near completely ignored by moral philosophers but which will strengthen ethical behaviour in society - (i) Speaking out against wrongdoing ‘(ii) Codes of ethics that really do work , (iii) steps to institutionalise ethical behaviour in business ,(iv) ensuring honest government (v) recognising when we ourselves have been unethical and (vi) building action on empirical findings not argument.
Peter Bowden is convenor and founding member of PhiloAgora
June 5 Joffre Balce Economics & the Crisis of Philosophy.
Underlying the crisis of the global economy is the fundamental crisis – that moral philosophy & economics do not mix. This discussion attempts to resolve that crisis by returning to the fundamentals – What is economics? What purpose does its textbook definition – the allocation of resources to satisfy human wants – serve?
July 3, John Scanlon Are we ever allowed to kill?
For each occasion that life is taken, the reaction of each of us will depend on whether we identify, culturally or ideologically, with the "killer" or with the "victim". This paper explores differences in degree of acceptance of various types of killing, from virtually universal [e.g. self defence] to very limited [e.g. honour killing]. Reasons for apparently inconsistent attitudes are also discussed.
John is a science graduate from Sydney University who spent his working life in a consumer products multinational company. His main fields of activity were R&D management, Technology Transfer and Team Building for Innovation.
We look forward to your attendance and participation at any of our events.
