We cover a very varied set of topics – philosophy of science, of politics and of morality and more. Our recent topics have been: September – Moral Relativism or Moral Progress; October – Islamic Philosophy; November – the ‘Kalam’ Cosmological Argument; December – the Moral Equality of Combatants (based on an OU OpenLearn course); January – Marx; February – Schrodinger’s Cat and Anti-Realism in Science
Next Meeting – Tuesday 9th April – Testimony
In philosophy ‘testimony’ just means whatever we are told by others – by world of mouth or in writing. Much of what we know seems to be based on such testimony – e.g. of historical facts or of our own date of birth. But we know that some of what we are told or read is not true, even when it purports to be so. So how can we rely on testimony for some knowledge? How can we tell what testimony to rely on? (This topic was originally agreed for March, but since only one member came to that meeting it was agreed to cancel and carry over the topic.)
Topics for further meetings have yet to be decided.
