We cover a very varied set of topics – philosophy of science, of politics and of morality and more. Our recent topics have been: 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, and April – Testimony.
Next Meeting – Tuesday 14th May – Rationality
How is it possible for physical organisms, such as ourselves, to have rationality, to be able to act on reasons and evaluate evidence and argument? Perhaps it could be argued that we can never have good reasons to believe we are just physical organisms, because if we were our belief would just have been caused – and the fact that one has been caused to believe something doesn’t show that there is any good reason to think it true. We will consider this puzzle and at a couple of philosophers’ suggestions of ways out.
Topics for further meetings have yet to be decided – although this topic could run for more than one meeting – at the group’s discretion.
