Philosophy Reading Group News

Hello,

The Philosophy Reading Group has been formally upgraded to a shiny university society. We will now be known as 'The Philosophy Society'. The benefits are unlimited, the greatest one being that we now have a comfortable venue for the year - The Gallery Room above the SU Bar at The Park Campus. We will meet on the first Thursday of every month, the first will be 2nd October 2008.

'The Philosophy Society' will have a stall at The Freshers' Fayre in September. I am looking for somebody to help man the table with me - if you are interested please email me.

Books discussed in last year's group included works by Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Tom Stoppard and Sartre. Our first meeting will be to brainstorm possibilities for the '08-'09 year. All ideas will be greatly welcomed.

Any questions or ideas can be sent to me. My email address is: s0510427@glos.ac.uk

Until then,

Shelley

The solution to Britain's knife crime and gang problem - Vicars?

Switch the T.V or Radio on right now and you are bound to soon hear about the latest tragic inner-city youth stabbing or person being shot dead for having a slightly different postcode or belonging to a different gang. Britain certainly seems to be having a problem at the moment, and coming from a south London council estate myself I find it very concerning.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on what can solve this problem, usually involving a long prision sentence (or worse if you listen to some TalkSport callers) but I found the suggestion from a group called "Churches together in England" to be quite interesting. They are suggesting that clergy move into some of the most badly affected areas and act as role models to those perpetrating the crime and belonging to the gangs.

Could this work? I genuinely believe that one of the major reasons some young people involve themselves in activities like this is because they have not had strong enough role models in their lives, and as such have looked at Gangster rappers and 70's Gangster movies (just two examples) to provide templates, as well as "Ghetto" life in the USA, but I dont believe this is the primary cause.

Could these clergy really have such an effect that teenagers all over London and elsewhere who arm themselves because they are GENUINELY scared would be willing to follow a different path? or would an influx of white middle class men (or women) be seen merely as do-gooders and interferers, and put themselves in danger spreading a message that could be seem as other-wrodlty and completely out of sync with everyday life in these areas?

story can be found here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2307209/Vicars-should-move-to-inner-cities-to-combat-knife-crime%2C-church-report-says.html

The Churches Together report is at: http://www.churches-together.net/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=27798

Digital Adventures in Milton Keynes

Tuesday saw me off, with colleagues from across the University, on a road trip to that most mystical and romantic of destinations: Milton Keynes.

We were there to visit the Digilab of the Open University. It is a 'showcase for tools, technologies and resources illustrating how today's technology can nurture tomorrow's learners' - as their website says. It is mainly a resource for the OU staff who design course materials.

They had an impressive array of games consoles (wii fit boards, 360s, PS3s, PSPs, DS Lites - etc), Mobile phones, PDAs, Macs to access Second Life on (with OU avatars to show visitors the educational islands), and much more. While we were there, some staff were working with the real-time, interactive education tool Elluminate, which looked very interesting.

I hope we can get more of this technology into our teaching - I just need to read a book I saw there called Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning Professionals....

Cirencester Philosophy blog

Our friends at Cirencester College have just started blogging at http://www.philosophycirencester.blogspot.com/ - and we hope their students will respond - as ours do (during term-time at least).

Their blog aims to be 'A place to share and discuss current issues, moral and philosophical questions.' - Worth exploring...

Dave

Philosophy & Ethics Reading Group

Some developments for the Philosophy & Ethics reading group we run:

We're hoping to set it up as an official student society which will give us additional benefits, and more importantly, a regular place to meet.

For this to be set up, it needs an official committee (of which Shelley Campbell has kindly volunteered to chair), and at least 10 signed up members.

Can you let Shelley know if you are willing to sign up (obviously you need to be a member of the University of Gloucestershire) by emailing her on s0510427@glos.ac.uk

We are also hoping to get a stand at the Freshers' Fayre in order to widen our membership.

Please let myself or Shelley know if you have any other questions.

How ethical are you?

The Times newspaper is linking to 'how ethical are you' test/quiz at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/article4300898.ece - you may be interested to see where it places you! It says I am a 'guardian' - I like the law...
Cheers,
Dave

Ethics, Cheap Clothes and tough decisions?

Recent publicity here in the UK has focussed attention on the phenomena of very cheap clothing for sale in the UK. The spotlight recently fell on Primark - which defends itself robustly at http://www.ethicalprimark.co.uk/ - after the BBC showed a number of claims regarding the fashion chain's alleged use of child labour: you can watch the programme below..




Is it appropriate for us to worry about this? Do we have a duty to take responsibility for the origins of that we buy? I am asking this, first, of some visiting Year 9 pupils (14 year olds) - who will make some comments - but comments from all are welcome..

See http://blogs.independent.co.uk/independent/2008/06/the-devil-wears.html for some interesting debate on this issue

Dave

Ethics in Sport?

Following previous discussions on the blog about the nature of sport, I came across a past episode of Philosophy Talk. You can listen to this online at http://www.philosophytalk.org/pastShows/EthicsinSport.htm and the same page has a range of links useful to those interested in ethical issues related to sport.

Cheers, Dave

Dead Philosophers and Public Philosophers

The Radio 4 programme Start the Week had a philosophical representaiton in its 9th June edition with Simon Critchely talking about his new book which is a catalogue of the weird and wonderful ends that philosophers have met over the last three thousand years. Also Kate Soper discusses the role of the philosopher and philosophy in public life both in the UK and on the continent. Worth a listen!

Vicar of Baghdad visits Stroud

Canon Andrew White, Vicar of Baghdad, will be coming to Stroud on July 13th.

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/news/12-15pm-Vicar-Baghdad-visit-county/article-191109-detail/article.html

While conflict in the Middle East has a religious undercurrent, Andrew White, uses religion for diplomacy and aid, as a link not a division.

http://www.frrme.org/

Here is an opportunity to not only hear a crusading humanitarian but also come to sunny Stroud and it's free (with a gift basket).

Shelley

Peter Singer on Comedy Show?

Is this the only place philosophers can get airtime in the USA? Peter Singer talks about animals, food and the usual - but on the Comedy Central show 'The Colbert Report':

A Dancing God?

Over at the blog of our friends at the Florida Student Philosophy Blog, someone raised an interesting point on the interpretation of a line in Nietzsche's Thus spoke Zarathustra: I reproduce the post below - feel free to follow up and comment:

I was reading Thus spoke Zarathustra, and I am trying to understand what
Nietzsche is trying to say in the entry called, On Reading and Writing, where
Zarathustra says, “I would believe only in a god who could dance.”
Anybody have any thoughts

The comments so far are at: http://unfspb.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/problem-with-zarathustra/

Dalai Lama Visit Report

Recently Jeannie Caton, one of our 2nd years (about to enter the third year) went to see the Dalai Lama speak, here in the UK. Very kindly, she has written a short report which I here pass on..

Cheers,

Dave:

The Dalai Lama Experience

The Dalai Lama visited Nottingham at the end of May and I went along with my 13yr old son to hear his talks on ‘Bringing Meaning to Our Lives’. It was pretty overwhelming to see this man, the alleged incarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and the spiritual and political leader of Tibet, a broken nation. Personally I was struck by his ease, his intelligence, and his sense of humour with the most contagious laugh.

After listening to 6 hours of this monk talking, it is difficult to pick out which part to write about. Politically, He is the leader of Tibet, a nation that has placed itself back in the world’s spotlight with the troubles since 10th march this year, and whilst this wasn’t what He was here for, it was obvious that people wanted to hear His views on the situation. It was really interesting to hear that He felt that the fight to ‘Free Tibet’ was irrelevant at the moment, that what was really important was that Tibetans were allowed to live as an autonomous people, with their own culture and language being encouraged to be kept alive, and that it was this that He hoped for when engaging in dialogue with Beijing. He also hoped that young Tibetans and Chinese would begin to merge, learn each others cultures and become friends: it all seems so idyllic, I hope His dream can become reality.

In the six hours of talks that I listened to, the main theme that I took away was His Holiness’ notion of anger, fear and suspicion: negativity. In His opinion we need to learn how to deal with negative emotions in order to make the world a better place and thus bring meaning to our lives. He stressed the importance of remembering that these negative emotions are energies, and not to grasp hold of them: that when someone is angry, hateful, to remember that it is the energy that is the enemy and not the person. In His view, negative emotions are connected to physical ills, so what is really important in our lives is happiness, for ourselves and for others. Being the Bodhisattva of Compassion He stressed the necessity of having compassion for all other beings, of remembering our interconnectedness, and that helping others is the best way that we can make the world a better place.

As a meditation, He suggested tuning your mind and body into remembering the feeling of being held by your mother as an infant; when nothing can harm you; when all is safe and well with the world. He suggested that this is the mind state that was preferable to be in, in order to live more positively, and that fear, suspicion and other overwhelming negative emotions are really pointless. This is something I feel is really important for people to try and remember, difficult as it is, for the future is nothing to fear; the future has not happened yet, there is no need to be overwhelmed by negativity when basing yourself in the present, in a safe state of mind. It made me think that hateful, angry people maybe need to be helped to feel safe, that personal insecurity has a lot to answer for.

Negative emotions are those which disturb our inner peace; fear, hatred, suspicion all destroy our inner peace and it is important to remember that they are energies which when confronted for what they are, become weak. The energy is the harmful aspect and not people, so it is possible to love your enemy, develop compassion for your enemy, for it is not them who threatens you, but the energy; actions are harmful, not people. These are wise words that could benefit the world, but difficult to remember in heated situations; on leaving the arena I came face to face with a crowd of angry Chinese demonstrators and I instantly felt the anger rise within me and succumbed to a heated discussion (to put it mildly!) with some Chinese students on the issue of Tibet. Afterwards I realised that I had fallen foul of negative energies, been overwhelmed by anger and had lost any ability to feel compassion for fellow beings: I have a lot to learn!!

Peace of mind is not something that can be bought with money. Peace of mind comes from physical and mental happiness. Peace of mind comes from release from negative energies. Peace of mind is our biological and spiritual right and is there for us to achieve by means of compassion; compassion for all sentient beings with whom we share this planet, with whom we are all interconnected and we would do well to remember this. The way to bring meaning to our lives is to encourage positive emotions of love and compassion, to help others and to show kindness in the face of cruelty. We are all human beings, no different from each other; whether Buddhists or Christians, believers or non-believers, we are all the same on a basic level and need to remember this. It would seem we could all learn from this wise and humble man who I was honoured to have the opportunity to listen to.

Fantastic Philosophy Resources at MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology have made huge amounts of their 'courseware' available, free, online. This includes a lot of philosophy materials. For example, see HERE for lectures notes on a range of topics including the Problem of Evil, the Ontological argument, and a range of ethical topics.


There are also video lectures on 'The Philosophy of Love in the Western World' - HERE - which will be of interest to students taking the RPE301, Love Sex and Death course.

Cheers,
Dave

PhD Opportunity Available

The faculty of Sport, Exercise and Social Care are advertising a three year fully funded PhD (£12,000 plus fees) in the Philosophy of Sport and Technology. The studentship is available to research the following questions:

• To what extent can a meaningful distinction be made between the ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ athlete?
• Does the claim that we have entered a post-human age have any validity and if so, what are the repercussions for elite sport?
• What are the implications for sport (for instance, the conception of (dis)ability sport) with the development of technology that obscures the line between the organic and inorganic?
  

It is a fantastic opportunity to secure a funded PhD in Philosophy (which are pretty hard to come by) and I encourage anyone with an interest and experience in Philosophy to apply. The closing date for applications is Friday 23rd May, with interviews taking place on Wednesday 4th June.

For more information please contact me and I would be happy to discuss it further.

Emily Ryall
Faculty of Sport, Health and Social Care
University of Gloucestershire