Death - Symbolism in Holbein's Ambassadors

For those on the RPE301 Love, Sex and Death module - we were talking about this in class, on Tuesday...

Death and the Greeks

For those doing RPE209 and RPE301, but really for anyone interested, a discussion point has been raised by Jeremy Stangroom on the Talking Philosophy website. Jeremy asks the following:

In the Phaedo, Cebes suggests to Socrates that a common fear amongst people is that the soul will be extinguished upon death.
Was that a common fear at the time? (The stuff I’ve been reading has sort of suggested that what people were really afraid of was that bad things might happen to their souls after death. But it’s possible I’ve been reading the wrong stuff.)
Is there a standard text dealing with attitudes towards death in Ancient Greece?

The Philosopher's Stone

A new philosophy e-journal, The Philosopher's Stone, has been launched. It is early days yet as it is currently looking for contributions for the first issue. It states the following:

'The Philosopher’s Stone is an online journal of philosophy founded on the conviction that the job of philosophers is to serve humanity by transforming the lead of confusion and uncertainty into the gold of clarity, understanding and upright living. What else could be the product of genuine and good philosophy – which is, after all, the love of wisdom? The purpose of this journal is therefore to publish articles that not only promote only academic discussion of philosophical issues, but which do so in a distinctive format, promoting the public understanding of those issues and of philosophy in general in a good humoured, engaging and enjoyable way.
The target audience of TPS is very wide: Philosophy students who want good resources to get a handle on their subject matter, professors who want a good source of material to draw on and recommend – and to read for their own enjoyment and edification, and members of the public with an interest in philosophy. The journal covers fresh expositions of thorny philosophical issues, good natured interaction between scholars at opposite ends of disagreements, exciting tales of recent developments in philosophy and more'

Keep an eye out for it!

Gloucestershire Philosophical Society - next talk

Prof Mike McNamee (Swansea University) - 

The Idea of Ethical Expertise

Time	16 February · 19:30 - 21:30
Location	Rm HC203, FCH, Uni of Gloucestershire Swindon Rd Cheltenham, United Kingdom
More info	The Idea of Ethical Expertise. In recent years, there has been considerable discussion of the nature and purpose of ethicists, e.g. medical, in the public domain. But is their work susceptible of expertise? Prof. McNamee argues against the ideal, and argues for the ancient Greek concepts of techne (craft knowledge) and phronesis (practical wisdom).

Students (and the public) are welcome to attend this event..

Thai Buddhist Sect - photo essay

Many thanks to my good friend Dr Paul Fuller, for pointing me in the direction of THIS article at Foreign Policy Magazine.

It is about the Dhammakaya movement (this is the link to their official website - some interesting pics HERE too),and the piece uses the word 'cult' rather easily. The movement (read a little HERE about it) has had controversy in the past, but remains hugely popular in Thailand and beyond. What is more striking about the Foreign Policy article is the truly amazing photos: they are copyrighted - so I won't re-post - but well worth it...


You can see a Dhammakaya Promotional Video below if you're interested.... (a clearly an 'insider' perspective from the organisation -  with some cheesy music - but interesting)


Cheers,
Dave

Film Society

Here is the flyer for the films for February. They are all shown in the lecture theatre (TC001) at FCH on Mondays at 8pm. Do please support this by attending!

Play

http://philosophyatplay.blogspot.com/ - note new posts...
d.

Call me Dr X?

http://crookedtimber.org/2010/12/12/how-should-students-to-address-professors/comment-page-1/#comment-341754 - an interesting dicussion: should students call me Dr X (esp odd, my surname not being 'X') and I call them by their surname: 'Oi Smith, what is meant by synthetic a priori? eh?'

Or maybe not.


I am kind of used to 'You' and 'Dave' - but the comments via the link really vary: let me quote a couple:


Maybe I’m just cripplingly old-fashioned, but I cringe when I see some of my colleagues insist on having their undergraduate students call them by their first names.


and


I find anything other than first-name address really awkward, but I think British students tend to gravitate to this as the norm anyway. American visitors on JYA programs tend to be more formal, and even sometimes address me as “sir”, which feels very weird indeed


(our visiting American [BCA] students sometimes do this - I rather like the implication of respect - but they soon learn....]


and


I’m struck by the number saying they use last name only (if I read it right). In direct address, I find that exceptionally rude, unless the person using it is so close to me that I can take it as jocular. The only situation where I regard it as normal is among school-age boys.


Not sure it ever really feels awkward these days? If I refer to a colleague in a class - I am sure I use their first name. As in: don't ask me, but am sure Roy will know.....

Need a break?

Need a break when reading/studying? Only if you think you do...


Philosophy News reports that: Stanford researchers find that the “need” for study breaks has less to do with our biology and more to do with our beliefs. "If you think of willpower as something that's biologically limited, you're more likely to be tired when you perform a difficult task," said Veronika Job, the paper's lead author. "But if you think of willpower as something that is not easily depleted, you can go on and on." Of course if the mind just is the brain, then the distinction between biologically needing a break and believing that you need one becomes a false distinction. Isn't it?


Full story at http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/october/willpower-resource-study-101410.html 

Facebook

http://bit.ly/rpeglos is the address for a new Religion, Philosophy and Ethics at Gloucestershire facebook group - all are welcome to join...


d.

Coffins in Ghana

Last year in RPE301 (as we will in January) we looked at 'death cultures' including coffins in Ghana.

As http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11879532 reports - a new exhibition of these has just opened in London at the Jack Bell gallery...

Thought this might interest some RPE students / blog readers!

d.

FCH Film Society

A new film society for FCH has been launched showing films related to a monthly theme every Monday evening. The theme for December is Conscience and the first screening, the Hitchcock film Rope, will be shown Monday 6th December at 8pm in FCTC001.

Lolcat Bible Translation Project

There are many novelty Bible translation projects - the Geordie Bible - the Cockney Bible, the Brick Testament (Lego based) - but a new one on me was the Lolcat Bible...

The peculiar text-msg influenced speech, and an emergent set of stock phrases (based on specific well-known lolcat images from http://icanhascheezburger.com/ - the main lolcat site), make lolcats seem rather intriguing anyway - but how to do the Bible? First have a Theistic notion (Ceiling Cat) - and go for it:

Boreded Ceiling Cat makinkgz Urf n stuffs

1 Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.

2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.

3 At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.4 An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin.5 An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!!1

See the whole project at:
http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page


http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=1_Corinthians_1 - they have done loads of work on this...

Esp like: http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Ecclesiastes 

But: do the novelty translations reveal new meanings? Anything beyond the fun here?

Kant Attack Ad..

Thought this might entertain some...

d.

Philosophy at Play

Readers of the RPE blog may be interested in a new blog I am helping organise at http://philosophyatplay.blogspot.com/  - this is still in development - but is getting there!

One of the key aims is to promote an event on the philosphical aspects of play - details of that are at :
http://philosophyatplay.blogspot.com/p/philosophy-at-play-conference-details.html

Cheers,
Dave