'Up Close and Personal: The Private Lives of Public Figures' a talk by Prof Sue Mendus, 13 October 2015

Abstract:

Up Close and Personal: The Private Lives of Public Figures

Over the years numerous public figures have had their careers damaged or even destroyed by revelations about their private lives: the Monica Lewinsky affair almost brought down President Clinton, Cecil Parkinson fell rapidly, and dramatically, from grace when his affair with Sarah Keays was made public and, most recently, Lord Sewel was forced to resign as deputy speaker for the House of Lords when his interest in prostitutes and orange bras was made public.

Revelations of this kind are often defended as being in the public interest, but do we (the people) really have an interest in knowing about the private lives of public figures? How much can we legitimately demand to know about them, and how much is (or should be) private? These are the questions I will address in this talk and I will take as my central example the case of Judge Clarence Thomas and Ms Anita Hill[1].

The talk will last about 30 minutes and I hope that there will be a lively discussion afterwards.  

Sue Mendus

---

[1] I will give the broad outline of the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill affair during my talk but, for those who wish to look this up in advance, they are to be found here: https://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/hillframe.htm

'Socrates and Antigone: Two ways not to be martyred' a talk by Prof Sophie-Grace Chappell 8 September 2015 7.30 - 9pm

Not all martyrdoms[1] are worth it. Some martyrdoms are not worth it even in the martyr’s own terms. Here I argue first– very briefly– that Antigone’s martyrdom was worth it, at least in her own terms (§1). At greater length I argue next that, in contrast, Socrates’ martyrdom was not worth it, even in (what we might have expected to be) his own terms (§2). Then (§3) I examine their “terms”, their beliefs, as depicted in Plato’s Crito and Sophocles’ Antigone respectively. This examination will produce the surprise that Socrates’ terms are not what we might have expected them to be.

---

[1] I use “martyrdom” to mean “any choice to accept death which is made by an agent on the grounds that adherence to his or her principles makes death unavoidable, given the behaviour of others”. It is no objection to this definition that Antigone dies by her own hand, and might have been saved. For Antigone did “accept death”, and she did not know that her own death was not unavoidable, since she had no reason to expect that Creon was going to change his mind at the last minute.

Barnes Philosophy Club - Schedule 6

'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.