'Neuro Philosophy: what is that?' A talk by Bryan Tully 11 June 2015

Abstract:

I will give a brief tour d'horizon of this emerging subfield of philosophy, touching on the major issues e.g. consciouness, free will etc, as well as some of the luminaries in this field such as Patricia Churchland and Antonio Damascio.  I then delve into a little more detail concerning recent work on moral decion making.  I will focus on the work of Josua Greene at Harvard who has used philosophical thought experiments to explore this, whilst at the same time collecting imaging data on what the brain is doing as these dilemmas are pondered.

Those same thought experiments and a more simple method of assessing brain activity will involve some audience participation!

'Constructing Copenhagen: weird things from quantum physics' a talk by Dr Stephen Rainey, Bull's Head, Barnes, 14 May 2015 7.30 - 9pm

Abstract:

A theme: something to do with the contrast between, and intersection of, the everyday and the very weird. The fairly innocuous picture is in fact an example of everyday weirdness (credit to Pablo Pardo for getting the picture).

The talk will present some weird things from quantum physics, and how despite the weirdness they nevertheless 'work' in everyday technologies. Lasers, for example, rely on quantum effects that seem hard to comprehend. This'll be where the Copenhagen Interpretation gets drawn in.

I will discuss the philosophical ramifications of having technology that works, but on a basis we can't understand -- logical, metaphysical, epistemological and ethical ramifications.

Then we'll have a look at Schrodinger's cat and how we can think about that and whether we can get to grips with it at all.

'Ancient Philosophy, Ancient Science: who were the earliest thinkers, and why do they still matter?' a talk by Simeon Underwood at the Bull's Head Barnes, 09 April 7.30 -9pm

On some accounts Western philosophy began on 28 May 585 BCE when an eclipse of the sun took place which had been predicted by Thales of Miletus.  There are a number of problems with this version of events.  But Thales was certainly the first of a series of thinkers, now grouped together as the Pre-Socratics, who lived in and around Greece in the 150 years before Socrates and Plato came to the fore.  Other key figures include Parmenides, Heraclitus and Empedocles.  What we now know of their thinking is fragmentary, often puzzling and teasing.  But, as the example of the solar eclipse shows, it was wide-ranging and entered into what we now think of as science just as much as what we now think of as philosophy.

In this talk I will give a brief historical introduction to the Pre-Socratics.  I then want to look at the questions the Pre-Socratics asked and the answers they gave to them.  Finally I will offer some thoughts as to why this is more than a historical footnote.