The February '09 Philosophy-in-LA Discussion group (http://philosophy-in-la.tribe.net/) is happening this Sunday, February 15, 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM. New participants from all backgrounds, points of view and religious belief (or non-belief) are most welcome. We'll be at our usual venue, the Community Room of the Yahoo Center, 2500 Broadway, between Cloverfield & 26th, Santa Monica, 90404. Detailed driving directions will be in the next email in a few days.
After the meeting, feel free to join us for dinner and more conversation. Location TBA.
FYI, mark your calendar with the dates of our next two meetings: March 15 at 5 PM (the usual 3rd Sunday of the month) and, tentatively, April 19 at 5 PM (the 3rd Sunday).
As usual, we are voting on the meeting's topic now. Below, I've listed five philosophical questions or conundrums suggested by the group during previous meetings or by email. Please reply to this email (soon) with the name of the topic(s) that you would most like to talk about! (Anybody can send in a vote, even if you haven't been to previous meetings.) I will send a reminder email Wednesday night or so, letting you know which topic won the vote and what optional readings we have.
1) WHAT IS ART? How do we know it when we see it? How can we define it? Can it be defined? Is it worth defining?
2) "A FOOLISH CONSISTENCY IS THE HOBGOBLIN OF LITTLE MINDS." What did Emerson mean by this, and do you agree? What sort of consistency is foolish? When should you be consistent, and when not?
3) WHAT MORAL OBLIGATIONS DO WE HAVE TO OBEY THE LAWS AND LEGAL RULINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT? Socrates, for example, seemed to think that we are obliged to obey the laws and court judgments of our society, even when we disagree with them or think them unjust. Yet, if we do think a law unjust, we are also obliged to protest against it and suffer the consequences of doing so. Do you agree with Socrates' view?
4) THE boundaries between things: What is a "boundary" and in what sense is it real? What demarcates or separates a thing from its surroundings? Do the boundaries we talk about exist in nature and reflect the structure of the world, or do our minds or languages create the boundaries we seem to perceive?
5) TORTURE AND INTERROGATION: how do you define torture, should we ever do it, and if so, when? Does sleep deprivation, placing prisoners in "stress positions" or water boarding count as torture? The issue is again in the national spotlight and generating debate as Obama is changing the Bush administration's controversial rules on "enhanced interrogation techniques." Other politicians are calling for the war crimes prosecution of officials who authorized water boarding. These politicians and officials have, implicitly or explicitly, taken a position on what constitutes torture, why it is torture, whether it's ever morally justified and, if it is, under which circumstances.
A further question arises. If enhanced interrogations are ever justified, are the past actions of the prisoner relevant? On the "No" side, many philosophers hold that torture is unjustified because it violates the basic rights or dignity that all humans deserve, regardless of their actions, and/or because the choice to torture is an indictment on our character as a people. On the "Yes" side, some claim that, if prisoners are from nations or groups that don't follow the Geneva conventions of conduct in war, for instance, then they don't merit the Geneva Convention protections regular soldiers enjoy. Therefore, the argument goes, if Guerilla soldiers or terrorists don't wear uniforms or carry their weapons openly, or if they take hostages, target civilians, or torture U.S. soldiers, then it's permissible to treat them less humanely. That treatment might include rougher techniques of interrogation that, depending on your definition, constitute torture.
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Send in a vote for your favorite topic(s) now!
Also, if you have any philosophical question or topic you've been dying to talk about, email it to me! That's how we get the topics we vote on each month.
See you there!
Brian
angelonapinhead@gmail.com
Ps. Apart from my emailing list and word-of-mouth, the people you meet at our gatherings typically hear about us from one of these good websites that you might want to check out: http://www.mypeopleconnection.com/, http://www.meetup.com/, http://www.readerscircle.org/, http://www.hala.org/ and http://www.philosophynow.org/
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