The Philosophy Society

Last month Paul Caddle ran the meeting on the topic of the philosophy of Bishop Berkeley. Unfortunately I posted a web-link for the reading which is a 74-page piece of writing by Berkeley. Paul had attached a small section of the reading (two pages) on a word document which I failed to see. I apologise if the daunting amount of reading made members shy away from the meeting. We had a healthy turn-out though, with or without a correct reading link. As you all know Berkeley reasoned the existence of God from the empirical evidence of objects existing despite an absence of human perception. To Berkeley, the perception of God locates objects in time and space. Here are the limericks Ronald Knox wrote on behalf of Berkeley's idea:

There was a young man who said God,

must find it exceedingly odd

when he finds that the tree

continues to be

when noone's about in the Quad

Dear Sir, your astonishment's odd

I'm always about in the Quad

And that's why the tree

continues to be

Since observed by, yours faithfully, God

The April meeting will be held on 8th April. I am awaiting an email from Park to confirm which room we will be allocated for the evening. We will meet at 7pm outside the SU Bar and venture to the room together. We will discuss the Philosophy of History and the reading is (eight pages) by Walter Benjamin:

http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Theses_on_History.PDF

Look forward to having an invigorating discussion.