PHILOSOPHY IN 20

Are you interested in dipping your toe in the waters of philosophy and ethics?

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The CSA "Philosophy in 20" group is geared to anyone with an interest in philosophy and ethics. Good news - there is absolutely no expectation of any previous exposure to Philosophy for these discussions.

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Topics plan are mostly from short (15 to 20 minute) audio interviews from a site called Philosophy Bites. When we meet, we will play an interview and then use it as the basis for discussion.

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While there is no obligation to listen to the talks beforehand, it can be beneficial to get ideas rattling around ahead of time. Therefore the link to the interview of the month will be posted on the Meetup.com site two weeks prior to that meeting. The Philosophy Bites interviews can also be found on Google Podcasts and other podcast facilitators.

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Your host for this series is David Mellow. He has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Calgary and has taught Applied Ethics courses there for eight years.

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WHEN & WHERE:

• 2nd Sunday of each month at 11:00 (or 1:00) pm for roughly 2 hours.

• Zoom meeting as posted a day or two prior to meeting.​

See Meetup.com for up-to-date DETAILS.

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SCHEDULE - 2022:​​​​​​​

• Sep - Gun control. What should be regulated & how much?

• Oct - Metaphysics - example: personhood - tricky stuff to define!

• Nov - Consequentialism - understanding some basics of ourselves.

SCHEDULE - 2023:​​​​​​​

• Jan - Moral luck. Does probability of luck affect what is moral?

• Feb - What can the atheist learn from religion?

• Mar - Moral Relativism.  Maybe examine a few of the extremes.

• Apr - Hate speech. How is it defined? How could it be defined?

• May - The Demarcation Problem (Science vs. Pseudoscience).

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SOME PREVIOUS TOPICS: 

• More Thought Experiments - Robert Nozick's Experience Machine Hillary Putnam's Brain in a Vat, Ship of Theseus, Mary Anne Warren's Personhood Criteria for a Space Traveler & John Rawls' Veil of Ignorance.

• Artistic Taste & Judgment -Elisabeth Schellekens Dammann - Objectivity?

• Thought Experiments - Julian Baggini - The Teletransporter, the Pleasure Machine & Jarvis Thomson's Violinist.

• The Trolley Problem - Michael Otsuka - the philosophy and psychology of same.

• Ethics of Vaccine Mandates - AHC - Framing the background.

• Ritual in Chinese Philosophy Michael Puett - Roles, particular per Confucius.

• ​​Consciousness - How and why it exists in an otherwise material world. 

• Moral Status - Jeff McMahan - Questions re foetuses & vegetative states.

• Immigrants & Refugees - Sarah Fines - Do rights to exclude exist?​​

• Singularity - David Chalmers - When AI machines create other machines.

• Inequity - Thomas Scanlon - Consequences & moral considerations.

• Free Will - Thomas Pink - Determinism per science, blame & choice.

• Medical Enhancement - Allen Buchanan - Capacity increase beyond just repairs.

• Meaning in Life - Susan Wolfe -Is  purpose subjective or objective?

• World Poverty - Peter Singer - From his book, The Child You Can Save.

• Philosophy 101 - Foundations of applied ethics and other life-conundrums.

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Please review our  CODE of CONDUCT    -   basically be nice - please!!