“For who would dare to assert that eternal happiness can compensate for a single moment's human suffering”

For RPE 305 Philosophy and Literature we will be starting off by looking at Albert Camus' novel The Plague. For your 'summer reading', then, you should at the very least read this novel - and more than once if you can! You may then like to read his novella The Stranger, which we will be looking at next.

The Plague can be read at many levels, but I suggest the best way to approach this is to imagine if you are put into a situation where you are trapped in a plague-ridden town and your whole world is turned upside down: you could die at any moment and your friends and loved ones are dying around you. How would you respond? How do the characters in the novel react to this situation? Can you blame them for their actions and who, if anyone, remains 'true' to him/herself? 

I would also suggest you familiarise yourself with the basic existential themes. A good starting-point is:

Flynn, Thomas, Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction, OUP (ebook), 2006.

Note this is a library ebook so you can access this on your computer, print it off etc.

Although it has its critics, we will also be looking at a number of passages from Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism (E&H), published by Yale University Press.

Feel free to post any of your thought here. 

Assuming that truth is a woman – what then?

For those of you who will be taking the module RPE307 Close Philosophical Reading, we will be looking at Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. The plan is to have a close reading of one section each week for discussion, but I also intend to have an online reading group on this blog that is open to all. The module will not start until January 2014, but it will certainly do you no harm to start some background reading before then. Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil covers most of his philosophical ideas, and so you should familiarise yourself with a good, basic introduction. If I may 'be so bold' to recommend my Nietzsche: The Key Ideas. A revised, extended edition called A Complete Introduction to Nietzsche should be coming later this year. In addition, I recommend students acquire at least one of the following section-by-section commentaries on the text:

Burnham, Douglas, Reading Nietzsche: An Analysis of Beyond Good and Evil, Acumen Publishing, 2006

Lampert, Laurence, Nietzsche’s Task: An Interpretation of Beyond Good and Evil, Yale University Press, 2004

Southwell, Gareth, A Beginner's Guide to Beyond Good and Evil, Blackwell, 2008

As Nietzsche himself says, ‘the hardest thing to translate from one language to another is the tempo of its style.’ There are many translations of Beyond Good and Evil, and they vary greatly.  In my opinion, the Marion Faber translation is still the best in capturing Nietzsche’s ‘style’.


Nietzsche, Friedrich, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. by Marion Faber, OUP, 1998 (Reissued 2008)

As a starting point, you should read the Preface (a couple of pages) which contains certain major themes as well as introducing Nietzsche's way of working. As you are reading it (and you should read it at least two or three times to get used to his style and way of thinking), try to be aware of these. In particular:

·       ‘Assuming that truth is a woman – what then?’ What do you think Nietzsche means by this when you read what he says after?

·       What does Nietzsche mean by dogmatism? Who are the dogmatists?

·       What is Nietzsche’s view of much of philosophy so far?

·       Why does Nietzsche refer to Jesuitism and the democratic Enlightenment?

·       What do you think Nietzsche is setting out to do?

It will also help you to 'get to know' Nietzsche, and I highly recommend Julian Young's book here. It's long, but detailed and up-to-date, and it is also a philosophical biography, so you will get a very good idea of his views. You should also watch the excellent film on Nietzsche from the Human All-Too-Human series. 

Have fun and keep posted as I will be adding more on Nietzsche from time to time...and let me know what you think of the Preface! 

Syria, Iran, and why people should learn a thing or two about religion

On BBC’s Question Time recently (20/6/13), the Daily Mail journalist Melanie Phillips, when asked a question about the civil war in Syria, declared that Syria is the ‘pawn of Iran’ and that Iran should be ‘neutralised’. She stated that Iran is run by people who believe that if they ‘bring about the apocalypse’ they will bring to earth the ‘Shia Messiah’. 

This is one example where an ignorance of Islamic belief and practice can be very dangerous and why I think it is so important for people to gain some education in what are fundamental religious beliefs, and how this can mold a person’s political stance. Shia theology, amongst the ‘Twelver’ (or Imami) Shia anyway (Shia is, in itself, quite diverse) - which is the dominant religion in Iran (the rulers of Syria are Alawite Shia, which is not the same) -  does hold the view that the twelfth imam (the Mahdi) will return at a time of chaos and upheaval, and this will lead to a period of peace and justice. As practically every generation has experienced chaos and upheaval, it is certainly not uncommon for Shia Muslims to expect this time to come soon, but this is very different from Melanie Phillips remark that they wish to bring about the apocalypse. This is, therefore, an example of very sloppy arguing from someone who claims to be 'rational' here.

Interested in our course? Find out more...

For loads more info join the Religion, Philosophy and Ethics Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/RPEglos/ - or just browse what we've been up to there.

The Religion, Philosophy & Ethics course is based at our FCH campus here in Cheltenham
 
You can read our course leaflet HERE, or visit our video blog at http://philosvids.wordpress.com/ 

Happiness?

So.. Happiness.. It seems to be everywhere at the moment. Not actual happiness - but discussion about it. You can find Justin Whitaker (over on his blog) talking about there being good and bad types of it : http://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/2013/06/beyond-happiness-buddhism-and-human-flourishing.html

He argues that the good sorts can't be found by uncovering some secret - but that important forms of happiness actually come from extended hard work - particularly hard work on rooting out ingrained negative ways of thinking and behaviour (that'd be meditation and ethics then).

Over at http://dispirited.org/2013/06/12/happiness-and-the-welfare-of-others/ you can find me (and only one cat picture this time) claiming that perhaps we should worry less about happiness and more abut virtue.

Either way - and I know it's a topic that my colleague Professor Melissa Raphael will be discussing at our Open Day on Saturday -  it seems to be a pre-occupation in Western society : but might we be tempted that, as people with enough food, clean water and no war in our daily lives, to perhaps think of it as a peculiarly "First World Problem"?

New RPE Leaflet..

Want to know more about the RPE course? Download our leaflet HERE...

Philosophical Weddings?

Someone over on twitter (I'm @davidwebster btw) was asking about wedding readings - and I was

reminded that some actually choose a philosophical rather than religious text: From Plato's Symposium...

Really..

Take a look at http://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/readings/extract-from-platos-symposium_443.htm  if you don't believe me..

You may know the section? Humans were originally four-legged and four-armed - then the God's sliced then in two - and love is the search for your - literal -other-half - for what completes you.. Sweet..

Here is the full text:

Humans have never understood the power of Love, for if they had they would surely have built noble temples and altars and offered solemn sacrifices; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done, since Love is our best friend, our helper, and the healer of the ills which prevent us from being happy.

To understand the power of Love, we must understand that our original human nature was not like it is now, but different. Human beings each had two sets of arms, two sets of legs, and two faces looking in opposite directions. There were three sexes then: one comprised of two men called the children of the Sun, one made of two women called the children of the Earth, and a third made of a man and a woman, called the children of the Moon. Due to the power and might of these original humans, the Gods began to fear that their reign might be threatened. They sought for a way to end the humans’ insolence without destroying them.  

It was at this point that Zeus divided the humans in half. After the division the two parts of each desiring their other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one. So ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, reuniting our original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of humankind. 

Each of us when separated, having one side only, is but the indenture of a person, and we are always looking for our other half. Those whose original nature lies with the children of the Sun are men who are drawn to other men, those from the children of the Earth are women who love other women, and those from the children of the Moon are men and women drawn to one another. And when one of us meets our other half, we are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other’s sight even for a moment. We pass our whole lives together, desiring that we should be melted into one, to spend our lives as one person instead of two, and so that after our death there will be one departed soul instead of two; this is the very expression of our ancient need. And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called Love.

Buddhism, Karma and Rebirth: Life-After-Death

Over at http://philosvids.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/buddhism-karma-and-rebirth-life-after-death/ I ask Dr Paul Fuller about some issues in Buddhism..

enjoy!

Trolley Car Problem - Video

Ok - HERE you can hear me talking about the Trolley Car ethical dilemma - hope it's useful...

Come and hear a paper - 'Feminist Appropriations of Spinoza' - by, arguably, Britain's best-known feminist philosopher of religion!

Come and hear a paper - 'Feminist Appropriations of Spinoza' - by, arguably, Britain's best-known feminist philosopher of religion!

Monday 11 March, 2013, Dr Pamela Sue Anderson, (Regent’s Park College, Oxford) 'Feminist Appropriations of Spinoza and the Contemporary 'Re-visioning' of the Philosophy of Religion'.

 5.30 - 7.00, Francis Close Hall, room HC204

Dr. Pamela Sue Anderson is the Dean of Regent’s Park College on Pusey Street, where she teaches philosophy as a Tutorial Fellow. 

She is the author of Ricoeur and Kant (1993) and A Feminist Philosophy of Religion (1998); she has published articles in various journals, including The International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, Sophia, and Feminist Theory in which she published ‘Autonomy, Vulnerability and Gender’ (August 2003). Her books include a collection of critical essays, Feminist Philosophy of Religion: Critical Readings (2004) co-edited with Beverley Clack and, with Jordan Bell in 2010,  Kant and Theology and Re-visioning Gender in Philosophy of Religion (Intensities: Contemporary Continental Philosophy of Religion) in 2012.

RPE Seminar programme 2012-2013

OPEN TO ALL:

Mondays, 5.30 - 7.00, Francis Close Hall, room HC204

Monday 18 February, 2013, Dr Will Large (University of Gloucestershire), 'Remembering the Impossible Possibility: Kierkegaard and Human Capital'.

Monday 11 March, 2013, Dr Pamela Sue Anderson, (Regent’s Park College, Oxford) 'Feminist Appropriations of Spinoza and the Contemporary 'Re-visioning' of the Philosophy of Religion'.

Ten Reasons..

Ten reasons to do RPE at UoG

1.     It’s a great course! Our university was one of the first in the country to combine Religion, Philosophy and Ethics together in one degree. Students are attracted to this course because it allows them to combine their love of three different subjects, while recognising how they are interrelated. We scored highly in the 2013 Guardian League Table, and, in fact, came top overall for ‘value-added’ (speakers, field trips, etc.; see below)

2.     We have great students! Perhaps it’s something in the spa water here, but our students our bright, friendly and enthusiastic. They are always willing to help each other out and no one feels left out.

3.     We have great lecturers! Our lecturers are passionate and knowledgeable about their subjects. We have experts in the field of Indian religions, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, feminist theology, philosophy of religion, Nietzsche, Heidegger…. Our staff give talks at schools and colleges and have written many accessible books, written articles for The Philosopher’s Magazine and Dialogue, and appear on BBC radio. We also make full use of other media, including the provision of video resources for our current students, but also as a response to questions from A-level students.

4.     The importance of teaching and learning. Our research feeds into our teaching and we all understand how important it is to engage our students in the classroom. We pride ourselves in engaging in interactive teaching and learning, and debate is encouraged. A variety of teaching methods are adopted, and students are assessed through, not only essays, but portfolios, presentations, videos, critical reviews, and so on.

5.     It’s a great place to study. The students here repeatedly sing the praises of the campus and of Cheltenham. The ‘Hogwarts’  architecture of Francis Close Hall appeals to the future RPE wizards, and the town is, in the words of one student, “not too big, but not too small.” There is plenty to do in the town, but you will not be overwhelmed.

6.     Visiting Speakers. We have an active Gloucestershire Philosophy Society that meets regularly and attracts such speakers as Julian Baggini, Angela Hobbs, Chris Hamilton, Brad Hooker, to name a few recent appearances. We recently had Justin Whitaker come in to give a Buddhist meditation, and we also have Research Seminars from scholars in the field.

7.     Going beyond campus. Religion, Philosophy and Ethics doesn’t just take place in the classroom. We have links with the Cheltenham Literature Festival which, last year, had a philosopher in residence. The festival has lots of speakers in the field of religion and philosophy. We go on trips, including, recently, the Hindu Temple in Neasden and Hajj exhibition and the Diwali festival in Leicester. One of our really popular modules involves a five-day field trip to Cordoba in Spain.

8.     Staying connected. Our RPE Facebook group membership has not only current staff and students, but also past students [some now teachers themselves], academics and schoolteachers and is also open to potential students / applicants, so feel free to join, and to use it to ask current and past students any questions you like!

9.     We have relatively small class sizes and receive regular, in-depth feedback on their work. When students are asked what they like about RPE, they invariably say they like the opportunity to engage in debate in small groups. We also appreciate the importance of providing feedback to students for the work they have done, and this does not come only from written comments on their essays, but one-to-one tutorials and workshops.

10.   Our students really matter. All the staff have good, supportive relations with their students. When the new students arrive, they are assigned an ART (Academic Review Tutor) from RPE who will give them advice and support throughout their time at the University. Our course also has student reps who take an active part in the RPE Course Boards, feeding back on how students feel about the course. We listen to what our students have to say and are always open to new suggestions. 

All welcome

Just to note that our Facebook group (which has staff, current students, past students [some now teachers themselves], academics and schoolteachers as members) is also open to potential students / applicants: feel free to join, and to use it to ask current and past students any questions you like!

It should give a real sense regarding life on the course..  You can find it at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RPEglos/ 

Talking about Buddhism..

In case it is of interest - I've been talking to the Buddhist magazine Tricycle: http://www.tricycle.com/blog/dangers-spirituality-interview-david-webster 

Glos Phil Soc updates..

Upcoming events:

Other than the seminar on 27th February
all other meetings will be held at
Room HC203
Francis Close Hall
University of Gloucestershire,
Swindon Road, Cheltenham.
between 7.30 and 9.30pm

Cost

£25 per year, or £3 per meeting
Students £15 per year, or £2 per meeting
Programme Of Events Spring Term 2013

Wed. 30th. January, 2013 7.30.pm FCH Room HC203. Dr. David Webster, University of Gloucestershire, will talk on "Happiness and the Truth of Death: A Dispirited Account of Being Happy without Religion OR Spirituality". The talk is based on his recently published book by Zero Books.

Wed. 20th. Feb.2013. 7.30.p.m FCH HC203. Prof. Brad Hooker, University of Reading, will talk on "Impartiality". He is currently working on a textbook on a history of 20th. Century moral philosophy and a book on "Fairness".

Wed. 27th. Feb. 2013.10.30.a.m. Norwood Arms, Bath. Rd., Cheltenham. Society Seminar: "Telling or uttering the truth?"Click here for more information.

Wed. 13th. March, 2013. 7.30.p.m. FCH HC203. James Derounian, University of Gloucestershire, will talk on: "Big Society or Big Con?: An analysis on Coalition rhetoric, policy and practice". James is a lifelong community activist, who contributes to the Guardian's Community web-site.


Contact Us: pj@glosphilsoc.co.uk
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