Club Meeting 12 March 2007

Disclaimer: All attributed comments (even my own) are paraphrased to the point of being semi-fictional and events may have occurred in a different order than I remember. If you don’t like it, put your corrections/perspectives in the comments.

I arrived late, so I hope that some of the other members present will fill the gaps in my patchy and biased recollection.

James expressed his resentment at God, for causing (or was it allowing?) his lack of belief in Him. This resentment was allegedly thrown into sharp relief by an encounter with a particularly happy group of 'believers'. Michael and I tried to tell him that this was OK, as he was right, but James found little consolation in this.

The analogy was put forward that even though he didn’t believe in very much he could defend a very small area of ground very well with the few truths (or is that Truths) he could rely on. James replied that this wasn’t much use as he only had a small bit of ground, and the Christians were out having a good time playing cricket. I suggested that they were actually drowning and they didn’t know it. It was around this time that participants became less enthusiastic with the analogy.

Changing tack, I tried to tell James he had it wrong and that the key to happiness was to “not worry about whether or not you are actually happy” and “not worry about who you are”. I admitted that this was fairly well unfounded other than my own experience. James said that this was not very useful, and that I was full of shit.

We disputed the existence of buses, again. (Did we talk about ducks?).

Samuel Barnes arrived and cast doubt on James’ assertion that all Christians are happier than atheists, by declaring that he wasn’t particularly happy.

At some stage Michael bough theology into it, and we argued about the passive potential of God – That God has to have done everything and is the best at everything, otherwise he isn’t perfectly transcendental. A number of people expressed the opinion that this seemed a bit strange. I asked if God held the record for the performance of a certain kind of act in a public venue. Most people ignored this and Hannah told me that I didn’t say it loud enough because not quite everyone in the courtyard heard. Samuel Barnes seemed troubled. No one could agree on whether or not a God outside of time could act inside of time, or what this even meant.

That more or less concluded our meeting.
If you want to get in on the action ( or lack thereof) meeting details are listed here.

So Long and Thanks for all the Chilli

One of our most active and well-known members has left our small community (physically at least) for the exciting and exotic shores of Japan. Peter Woodward has probably devoted more of his time to the Philosophy Club than anyone else I've known since I have been at this University. A well as a period as club president Pete has at different times provided the venue, the food (really, really good chilli) and sometimes the drink for club events, all on his own time, and often out of his own money.

During his time here, whether he has been in an official position of authority (as much as any of our positions have 'authority') or not, Pete has always been a major contributor to the intellectual and critical nature of the club. I will particularly miss the withering (though usually well-meaning) verbal beatings that friend or foe alike could expect if we put a foot wrong when we found ourselves in an argument with him.

But for the moment, these duties will remain the responsibility of the remaining members.

While we spend our time as usual (studying/working/languishing in despair) Pete will be filling his working days with teaching English, and the rest of his time at Sumo matches or arguing with Zen Buddhist monks.

 

Thanks Pete & good luck.

Sam Douglas.

 

Bachelor of Theology at University of Newcastle

On Friday 9 March 2007 the Academic Senate of our university approved the introduction of a Bachelor degree program in theology. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Kevin McConkey has indicated that this degree could be of interest to anyone in the community, not just those seeking to enter religious ministry.

A new position of Professor of Theology will be created, and this position will be funded for the first five years of the program by the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.

Anglican Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Brian Farran, has said: "Placing theology in the public arena in a tertiary setting where everything can be critically assessed and dialogue can take place, is an exciting way for the Diocese to make links with the community and develop religious conversation".

Official UoN press release.

Politics at the Pub – Cool Clear Water

This month’s Politics at the Pub considers the politics of water, with speakers Nat Jeffery (former weather presenter with NBN and candidate for Climate Change Coalition for NSW Upper House in coming State election) and Michael Osborne (Newcastle Councillor for NSW Greens, Green's candidate State Seat of Newcastle Author of "Talking Water: An Australian Guidebook For The 21st Century").

The March Politics at the Pub will be at the Hamilton Station Hotel (Beaumont St, Hamilton), on Tuesday 20th, at 6.30.

With the election being held several days later, it might be a good chance to meet two of the lesser known candidates.

On 'Simone Weil'

I was recently in a hardware store perusing paint samples, when I discovered that Dulux has a paint colour called ‘Simone Weil’. It is a shade of grey.

Jesus loves Samosas

Osama, the empire's old arch-nemeses is celebrating his 50^th today, which is quite an achievement considering he wasn’t meant to see the end of 2002, with two wars apparently being waged to bring about his timely death. Only being 50, he could have a good 20 years of terrorist masterminding ahead of him before retirement

Prediction for the State Election in Newcastle

Those of you who have been paying attention to the news over the last eight months have been aware of the ‘situation’ concerning the local labor party and the state election. Ostensibly we are at a momentous event in the history of Newcastle politics: it will not vote labor and instead elect an independent. Stateline last week had a story about this followed by another concerning the fact that it is not the liberal party that is posing any threat to the Iemma government, rather independents, with the outside possibility that if roughly ten independents get up, then we could see a hung government.

What we are hearing is the lead the labor party has over liberal in two party preferred terms, which is creating a skewed picture of where dissatisfaction with a corrupt government is heading. It rightfully points that it is not going to a clearly incompetent option: the Debnam led liberals, who face losing seats rather than closing the gap, which one would expect considering the fit hitting the shan spectacularly for a government that has long outstayed its welcome. What it does not show is that rather than increasing its representation, the labor party is likely to lose seats to independents including the safest of labor seats, Newcastle.

Roughly the local polls are as follows: McKay (labor) 24%, Gaudry (independent) 22%, Tate (independent) 20%, Osborne (greens) 12%, Babakan (liberals) 9%. Ultimately it will be decided by preferences, with greens going to Gaudry, liberals to Tate, and you would think Gaudry before labor. Labor will go to Tate over Gaudry, which will amount to a Tate win (basically equivalent to a labor win). This is assuming however that people will just send the preferences to where the local party decides, which clearly is not the reality. As such, to call the results Tate 53% to Gaudry 34% would be misguided, it does still hint at a Tate win (I am predicting 47% to 40%).

Liberals will almost universally send their preferences to Tate because despite having been considered by the labor party to be their candidate in place of McKay, it still stands that Gaudry is the ex-labor member for Newcastle, McKay is the labor candidate for Newcastle, the greens are the greens, and as such Tate is the least of three evils for them. As I said above a Tate win is basically a labor win, and as such their preferences should actually go to Gaudry; they won’t. Babakan was very reluctant to say that the higher powers had given him the orders to preference Tate, which he himself seemed uneasy with, presumably because he is aware of this irony.

Greens preferences will be with Gaudry because they are against the rampant development of Newcastle. Anyone voting for greens will not preference Tate or labor above Gaudry, and will probably only put Tate above labor to avoid having McPuppet (though Tate would amount to about the same thing, he will not be absolutely obliged to follow party lines).

Labor will not preference liberals obviously, nor the Greens because of their almost militant opposition to the corrupt development dealings shaping Newcastle over the last fifteen years. For the same reason they will not support their ex-member, who was removed as their candidate from above for this very reason. Tate on the other hand was considered as their candidate because his vision for Newcastle as Mayor was rampant development followed by even more rampant development.

If Tate’s reasons for running as an independent rather than for labor are to be believed, that Newcastle needs to cast off the shackles of labor who have ceased being able to adequately represent Newcastle’s interests, then he should preference Gaudry before labor, but I doubt it. Sadly for Gaudry, he will probably have to preference Tate above labor, though it amounts to only a symbolic gesture. Presumably where their preferences go will be irrelevant anyway.

Essentially the Newcastle election therefore is a referendum on development.

What we get is a rejection of labor because of their pandering to developers and a desire to make the green lights easier for further development by removing an obstacle for ‘tits and arse’ (apparently she is there to represent generational change, but Newcastle is quickly turning into a retirement village, so I suspect its more to do with sex appeal to the conservative aging fraternity). However, the likely winner represents the same developer interests, just with some Newcastle pork barrelling (read Tate and the Honeysuckle corporation pocket lining). It is sad to say then that a majority of Novocastrians are in favour of development at the expense of town and social planning. Hopefully I will be proved wrong.

Anyway, any thoughts or alternate predictions out there?

SydPhil

SydPhil is a mailing list, presently administered out of the University of Sydney, for the purpose of publicising philosophy related events in the Sydney region.

While it is Syd-centric, it might be of interest for those prepared to make the occasional trip.

Review Notice – Foucault’s ‘History of Madness’

NDPR has published a review of the recent translation of Michel Foucault’s History of Madness (Histoire de la Folie, previously translated in an abridged form as Madness and Civilization).

On Education and the State of Democracy

Here is an article by our beloved Barry, the pick-a-box king:

Barry Jones article

Oddly, while reading this I thought of our federal education minister, Julie Bishop. She is very concerned about a few things: poor literacy and numeracy rates (not of interest to me here), ideologues teaching in schools, and post modernism eroding facts, slipping into that all frightening relativism!!!

Surely she can't have it both ways. Can you have evil idealogues co-existing with relativism?

What does she suggest we be taught if there not ideology, nor critical theory (which of course is the critique of ideologies)?

Considering Barry's article, what does her suggestions mean for the future of democratic Australia?

Most people I know think that I were crazy?

Billy Thorpe has now become the late instance of himself, dying on the 28th of February of a heart attack. What does this have to do with a philosophic blog? His best known song really should be the the anthem of many of our members, especially the hazy part.

Weekly Meetings

Weekly meeting are back on, Tuesday midday onwards. I've been assured that the McMullin Courtyard has recovered from it's encounter with the current administrator's fetish for the cosmetic enhancement of the campus, so we will see how it goes tomorrow. Usually if the weather is inclement, there was a few rooms (either MC110 or the fabled Philosophy Common Room) nearby that we could use, but I haven't checked their availability. Alternatively, we could see how many people I can pack into the shoe box that passes for my research office.

Also, I'm taking suggestions for our set topics. Don't make me talk about what I'm doing for a year, we will all regret it, especially last years members who have heard it all before.

I hope to see some ( or even all, though I don't know what I'd do with 90 or so people at a meeting) of you on Tuesday.

Sam Douglas.
(President)

The Mind’s Eye – An Introduction to Philosophy

The Art Gallery of New South Wales will be hosting a course of introductory lectures on the history of western philosophy.

George Molnar

Stephen Mumford, of the University of Nottingham, has established a site on University of Sydney philosopher (and student of John Anderson) George Molnar. Molnar, who died in 1999, was in the process of editing Anderson’s papers and finalising his work Powers A Study in Metaphysics.

As an aside, Oxford University Press has released Powers in paperback.

(Thanks to This is the Name of This Blog.)

Philosopher’s Carnival, No. forty-three.

The 43rd Philosopher’s Carnival is presently being held at This is the Name of This Blog. Mr Dougherty, host of this particular carnival, has chosen love as his theme.

Conference Notice – 14th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics

RMIT will host the 14th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics.

Article - 'Other Lives'

'It is hard to let go of Pythagoras. He has meant so much to so many for so long. I can with confidence say to readers of this essay: most of what you believe, or think you know, about Pythagoras is fiction, much of it deliberately contrived.'

M.F. Burnyeat has written an intersting article on the life of Pythagoras, for The London Review of Books, reviewing two recent biographies of the mysterious classical figure.

O-Week 2007

As it is O-Week, I thought that it might be worthwhile to scribble down a brief welcome note.

Firstly, welcome to the various new members of the University of Newcastle Philosophy Club. As of Monday there are about sixty of you. (I’d like to apologise to anyone I scared.) Secondly, welcome back to more established members.

Details of the weekly gathering/meeting are still to be finalised. At the moment they are still going to be held on Tuesdays, with a time and location to be announced shortly.

For those of you unfamiliar with Dialectic, it is our on-line forum. Club members are welcome to become contributors – the details on how to do this will be sent out in an email – and to engage in the discussions and debates that take place here.

It has been suggested that the Club convene a Fresher Reading Group. This would probably meet monthly. If members are interested in joining, they should contact us and let us know.

Once again, the Executive would like to state that the Club exists for the interests of the members. If you have a suggestion or comment, all you have to do is let us know.

Martin Hill,
Vice-President (In Exile).

Question On Mateship

Watching the ABC’s Difference of Opinion, I began to think about the concept of ‘mateship’ and how it differs from ‘friendship’.

This led to a question that needs more attention in Australia than it has possibly been given – what is ‘mateship’?

Undergraduate Philosophy at the University of Newcastle

For the official University of Newcastle philosophy course descriptions, please click on the course code. You will note that not all philosophy courses are available this year. This is due to a combination of issues, so generally they are run on alternate years .
If we had enough people express interest, then the university might be able to run them more often.

If you are an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident and do not currently qualify for entry to university, but want to study philosophy, both Newstep and Open Foundation run excellent introductory Philosophy courses.

PHIL1020 Introduction to Philosophy A 10 units
An introduction to Philosophy through a range of topics from to the Mind-Body problem to Utilitarianism. Content changes almost every year. Not indicative of the structure or depth of more advanced courses.

PHIL1030 Introduction to Philosophy B 10 units
As above. Has previously included Existentialism, Peter Singer on Animal Rights and Darwinism.


PHIL1060 Introduction to Philosophy of Psychology 10 units
An introduction to the philosophical issues arising from the study of psychology.

PHIL3020 Metaphysics 20 units
Does Space have a shape? Do other minds exist? Do I have hands? Is Inductive reasoning of causation reasonable? Survey a highly diverse selection of philosopher’s arguments in one of the most interesting and fundamental branches of philosophy. I enjoyed it in the past, therefore you will enjoy it in the future!

PHIL3030 Reason and Religion 10 units
One of the most popular higher level philosophy courses run by the faculty, content covers most of the major arguments for the existence of God, as well as many of the arguments against this proposition.

PHIL3060 Topics in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Philosophy 10 units (Not available in 2007)
Plato, Aquinas and Nietzsche. A heady and dangerous mix if the proportion of Nietzsche is too high. Spend many happy hours in the Godfrey Tanner bar wondering what it would be like to be a barbarian. In all seriousness a great precursor to any serious study of ‘Continental’ philosophy.

PHIL3070 Scientific Knowledge and Scientific Method 10 units
What is special about Science and why does it work so well? How should we decide between competing theories? Includes work by Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn and Paul K Feyerabend.

PHIL3120 Philosophy and Film 10 units (Not available in 2008)
A highly popular course with both Film and Philosophy students.


PHIL3140 Non-European Philosophy 10 units
See how the other half live. Daoism & Lao-Tzu, Confucianism, and ancient chinese cosmology. Dwell on filial piety, ponder the elegant visual poetry of Lao-Tzu, or completely un-do your mind by thinking about what the Dao is like.

PHIL3260 Philosophy of Language 10 units (Not available in 2008)
Covering works from Kripke, Quine, Wittgenstein and many more this course gives a solid introduction to a field that straddles Logic, Philosophy of Mind and the relationship between our words and the world we inhabit.


PHIL3420 Critical Thinking 10 units
Learn to differentiate between Soundness and Validity. Finally figure out what those little diamond and square shapes in books about logic mean. Hone your critical skills in a way that can improve your performance in almost any other discipline if applied properly.

PHIL3430 Introduction to Rationality Theory 10 units (Not available in 2008)
If you are lucky enough and know more about game theory than your opponent, you could win a cash prize from Dr Mintoff!

PHIL3451 Philosophy and the Good Life 20 units (Not available in 2008)
What is ‘the Good’? How will we know it when we see it? What is the role of pleasure in life?

PHIL3460 Philosophy and Human Relationships 10 units
Friendship, Love, Happiness and Politics.

PHIL3580 Ethical Issues 10 units
Both a stimulating and at times confronting look at ethical issues surrounding the profession of Social Work. Even if you are not a Bachelor of Social Work student, this is worth doing if you are interested in issues of social welfare and justice.

PHIL3720 Philosophy of Cognitive Science 10 units (Not available in 2008)
Once run by the now legendary Professor Cliff Hooker, this course may, or may not be back. But I (and others) hope that it will return at some stage.

PHIL3821 Enlightenment and its Discontents 20 units (Not available in 2008)
The Enlightenment, Modernity & its defenders and the people who insisted on pointing out the problems with both. As Mr Hill would say: “Was ist Aufklarung?”

PHIL3850 Power and Subjectivity 20 units (Not available in 2008)
Want to understand Foucault? Well it will take more than this, but it is a good start. Covering a large amount of material from Conolly, Lukes, Marcuse and Foucault, this course looks at the exercise of power and the creations of subjects via everything from discourses on sex to correction by incarceration, ostensibly from a continental perspective.

PHIL3910 Technology and Human Values 10 units
Striking fear into the hearts of engineering students, who will do anything to avoid it as it involves thinking, writing essays and working in groups, this course exists to expose students to normative decision making in an engineering, design and dynamic systems modeling context, through the use of both technological examples and philosophic works.

PHIL3930 Human Values and Commercial Practice 10 units
Should businesses ever be ethical for reasons other than money?
Widely taken by business and management students (who generally miss the point) Looks at issues of normative ethics and meta-ethics from a business and managerial perspective.

There is also an Honours program in Philosophy available through the Bachelor of Arts. This consists of a full-time year (or equivalent) of study roughly split between coursework on selected topics and a written dissertation/thesis on a topic of the students own choosing. Coursework varies from year to year, but has in the past choices have included courses on: Kripke’s Meaning Scepticism, Philosophy of Consciousness, Socrates, David Hume and Aristotelian Virtue Ethics.

Candidates who achieve Honours Class I or Class II Division 1 are eligible for admission to post-graduate research degrees. Alternatively, for those seeking further coursework based study in other fields, successful completion of this Honours year translates to an extremely high score on the Universities Admissions Index (UAI).

A note on ‘units’: A standard course ( aka subject) is 10 units, and a normal full-time load is 40 units per semester.