A public club that meets to talk with philosophers and discuss a wide variety of philosophical issues. We aim to promote a philosophical and thoughtful approach to everyday life, and to help connect the outside world to the thinking of professional philosophers. We are supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy and based in Barnes, London SW13, UK.
Supported by the Royal
Institute of Philosophy
Tuesday 9 February 2021 at 7:30pm
"Even if we don't believe
that Jesus was the son of God, we tend to think he was a great moral teacher.
But was he? And how closely do idealised values such as our love of the family,
helping the needy, and the importance of kindness, match Jesus's original
tenets? Drawing on his new book, Julian challenges our assumptions about
Christian values - and about Jesus - by focusing on Jesus's teachings in the
Gospels, stripping away the religious elements such as the accounts of miracles
or the resurrection of Christ, and asking how we should understand
Jesus's attitude to the renunciation of the self, to politics, or to sexuality,
as expressed in Jesus's often elusive words."
Here's a link to buy Julian's book,
which supports both Julian and independent bookshops.
Julian Baggini is a British philosopher, journalist and the author of over 20 books about philosophy written for a general audience. He is co-founder of The Philosophers' Magazine and has written for numerous international newspapers and magazines.
An epiphany is an overwhelming existentially significant manifestation of value in experience, often sudden and surprising, which feeds the psyche, which feels like it “comes from outside”—it is something given, relative to which I am a passive perceiver—which teaches us something new, which “takes us out of ourselves”, and to which there is a natural and correct response. (At least one; possibly more.) Often the correct response is love, often it is pity, or again creativity. It might also be anger or reverence or awe or a hunger to put things right—a hunger for justice; or many other things. It may be something that leads directly to action or new knowledge, but it may also be something that prompts further contemplation or reflection; or other responses again.
Epiphanies are central to ethical experience, but not to ethical theory. I address this mismatch, and show how what needs to change to fix the mismatch is not experience—but theory.
Thank you to everyone who attended Fiona's recent talk, and for some excellent questions.
You can view the recordinghere and the handouthere. Please do subscribe to our channel so you can easily find future talks.
Prof Ellis defended a form of naturalism which has much in common with Iris Murdoch’s ‘true naturalism’, but argued that it can accommodate God. She considered what it could mean for naturalism to be theistic in this sense, and respond to the charge that it leaves no room for the transcendent.
Fiona is happy to receive questions about her talk - her email address is included in the handout.
This lecture, given on-line to Barnes Philosophy Club (sponsored by the Royal Society of Philosophy), in London, April 2020 is the first of 2 Parts. This talk, simply put, has been constructed to promote a 'System' by the author which brings together Psychology (Attitude Analysis, Numbers and Psycho-metrics) with Philosophy (Words, Linguistic Analysis and Meta-Ethics). Previously the author has talked on the subject of Russell's major contribution to Analytic Philosophy and his association with Psychology when the 'System' was first presented to an audience in London in May 2017 .
This second lecture uses Bertrand Russell as an example of how and why a Philosopher can and does change his or her Ethical Position over time, seemingly as a result of a combination of effects relating to life events and the influence of other Philosophers. By using a combination of Philosophical and Psychological ideas it seems possible to create a Psychometric-Philosophical Paradigm (PPP System) which enables 2-dimensional (X - Levels of Aggression , Y - Levels of Self-Esteem) mapping of different Ethical positions, with Russell being seen to move around such a mathematical 'Grid' ( sc. Moodgrid /moodgrid.com as inspired by Eyesenck's Personality Diagram ) to significant degrees). 5 such Main Ethical Positions are so described and analysed. Such mapping appears to be a potentially useful method to improve comparability and commensurability of Ethical Norms. Also, the 'Grid' facilitates identification and analysis of a number of logically created Dimensions running across the Grid, which hopefully assists in the understanding of the multitudes of Dichotomies and Dialectics within the realms of Philosophy, to be discussed in more detail in Part 2.
Part 2 deals with how such differing Ethical positions might drive Higher Order thought and significantly affect Philosophical, Social and Political Positions. The third dimension (Insight-Ignorance (Z)) of the PPP is described which facilitates construction of cubic space within which to locate and quantify more complex sets of ideas and permit analysis and grouping of individual Philosopher's Positions at any given 'time'. The 4th Dimension, as with any Cartesian System. being time.
As such, the whole 'PPP System' is an attempt, as also inspired by Russell and Wittgenstein, to uncloak any disguise in the language of higher level argument, Such language is usually designed to effect social control and promote sometimes highly suspect and distorted political agendas, not necessarily therefore truthfully represented in that language. Finally, some quotes from Russell himself, extracted from context within the talk ..... “Emotions drive the Attitudes which distort our Ethical Norms “ “In all Ethical Questions are Feelings” “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so ‘certain’ of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts…” "Not to be absolutely certain … is one of the essential things in exhibiting rationality or reason" "Ethical metaphysics is fundamentally an attempt, however disguised to give legislative force to our own wishes…." Robin K Strachan London, U.K. April 2020
There were some good stories from the floor too ! Not of class in the same way as in England but in New Zealand, in Hungary, and a story not of class but maybe of priviledge. Interestingly Dr Neil Williams showed how complex the notion of class is illustrated from both the internalisation of the self as well as external circumstances
Neil meeting the folk of the club ... and some relaxing ...
Some researching on the Phone !
Some like advertising the club
and ... Some love cooking for the club too !!
Meet Vicky the OSO Catering Manager and her husband
The evening was very interesting and made accessible and fun by our Speaker: Dr Neil Williams University of Roehampton
In this talk, I am interested in exploring the exact nature of social class, and the role that our social class plays in allowing us to operate comfortably within certain social spaces. In particular, I will focus on experiences of social mobility, and in challenging the modern assumption that moving to a higher socio-economic group is always an unalloyed good. In fact, I will suggest, when we examine the experiences of those who have been ‘upwardly mobile’ in this way, we typically find them pervaded with a sense of profound alienation. Even when they have – by all objective markers – attained socio-economic success, the socially mobile are haunted by what cultural critic Mark Fisher describes as ‘‘[the] sense of not belonging there, of being intruders’ (Fisher, 2013). After presenting and analysing an illustrative range of these experiences, I will argue that to take them seriously we must provide an account of class which places an emphasis on class identity, rather than an account based solely on socio-economic conditions. To end, I will present my own account of class identity in terms of an innate sense of inferiority and superiority.
