Philosophy

Philosophy 1

Philosophy group 1 meets on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month at the Victoria Inn, Threemilestone. The meetings last from 10 to 12, with a coffee break half way through. We have a membership on average of about 15, out of whom 8 to 10 people will attend. There is currently space for a few new members.

Each time, one of us takes on the responsibility for preparing some notes on an agreed subject, and we circulate those notes in advance so the rest can have time to think about it. Be aware that if you are expecting definitive answers to “what is the meaning of life?” or similar, you may be disappointed!

Here are a few of the subjects we have discussed recently: 

Anatol Rapoport – War and Rationality

Spinoza

The Meaning of ‘Truth’

Ryle and The Concept of Mind

What is Time?

If you are interested in joining us please contact me on roy_goodman@hotmail.com

 

Philosophy 2 (formerly Pub Philosophy)

I set up this group in 2013 in a Feock pub where we met until Covid in 2020 when we resorted to Zoom. Our meetings are now held in the spacious and well ventilated meeting room of the refurbished Carnon Downs Village Hall, generally on the last Friday of the month at 2pm. There are 13 current members.    

In an article published in U3A Sources in 2013 Edward Link, Philosophy Subject Adviser, commended philosophy as an excellent fit to the U3A. ideal that would open up a world of endless fascination. He stated, “Philosophical questions extend to all aspects of life. For practical purposes we have to operate as if the world is as we perceive it to be, and that we can trust our reason and intuition to be a reliable discriminator of truth. But what is solid and true for one may be delusional for another. Whilst many are happy to live their lives on what they believe to be true, for others probing and questioning life and its many facets is a compulsion, or at least an enjoyable intellectual pastime. Today the formal academic study of philosophy has become institutionalised into highly specialised areas that are forbidding and largely inaccessible to the lay person. But this should not deter those of an enquiring disposition.” 

Bertrand Russell said that philosophical questions should be studied not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions but for the sake of the questions themselves. 

We are flexible in the questions we choose to discuss, all volunteered by members of the group. Sometimes they are preceded by formal papers but often prompted by current issues. Here are a few recent examples: 

Free Range Philosophy: a work in progress – limitations of reason and logic

Ryle and the Concept of the Mind – The Mind and the Brain

Does rational thought inform our emotions or serve them?

Abortion Debate – not to decide which side is right but which questions to ask

Climate change and political sleaze

Should we judge historical figures by today’s standards?

(Covid) Do we have a moral duty not to get sick?

Our good natured discussions are lively and informative and our sessions tend to last around two hours. 

We are always willing to welcome new members. 

Geoff Burgess

01872 862712