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The Philosophy in the Community
Lecture & Discussion Series
@ The Refinery
Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the College of Arts and Science
Philosophy in the Community is a lecture and discussion series organized by the Philosophy Department at the University of Saskatchewan, with the support of the College of Arts and Science. It is in place as a public service, so that we may share the rewards and pleasures of philosophical reflection with the members of our community. Philosophical thinking, reading and analysis is part of the life well-lived.
This series is free, no registration is needed. No philosophical background is required; intellectual curiosity is. Coffee provided.
For more information, contact: emer.ohagan@usask.ca
| Location: | The Refinery St. James Church Basement 609 Dufferin Avenue (at 12th Street, just off Broadway) |
| Time: | 7:00 – 9:00 PM |
| Dates: | Second Wednesday of each month, Ocotober through April |
Special September Event Philosophy in the Community in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture and Creativity (ICCC) and the Broadway Theatre present a film and discussion about art and commerce: Exit Through the Gift Shop We will watch the inventive, funny documentary about Thierry Guetta, a thrift-store owner whose admiration of graffiti and enthusiasm for video-taping his life leads him to produce a documentary about street artists. Eventually Guetta meets and partners with the famous anonymous street artist, Banksy, who suggests that Guetta himself should produce art. The results are comical and lead us to question what makes something a work of art as well as the role of commerce in the production of art. The discussion following the film will be led by a philosophy professor and the director of the Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Program. There will be an entry fee for this event. Event poster [PDF, 379 kb.] |
2013 - 2014 Schedule
| Oct. 9 | "Freedom, Responsibility and Morality"
Professor Emer O’Hagan If we don’t freely choose our actions, can we reasonably be held responsible for what we do? In this talk I will discuss some of the relations between freedom, responsibility, and morality. I will focus on those theories of freedom that suggest that freedom is nothing more than being moved by one's deepest desires, or deepest self. While such views of freedom have merit, they have been objected to on the grounds that the deepest desires of some persons could be "insane." This leads us to consider whether or not true freedom requires morality, and how we should think about the nature of moral responsibility. |
| Nov. 13 | "Can We Learn About the World by Just Thinking?" Geordie McComb, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto The answer seems to be no. After all, you can't find out what a pineapple tastes like without tasting one. Yet scientists and philosophers have often learned about the world using "thought experiments"—that is, just by thinking in a certain way. How could this be? To illustrate the problem, consider a couple of examples. First, do masses fall twice as fast when they're twice as heavy? No, said Galileo, they fall at the same speed, and to find this out we need only imagine a couple falling stones and do a little reasoning. Second, if a fetus is a person, and if all people have a right to life, is abortion obviously impermissible? No, says philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson, and we can come to see this just by thinking about a certain imaginary violinist. Over the past 25 years, philosophers have argued for a number of fascinating accounts of how we can use these and other thought experiments to learn about the world. We will have a look at some of the most prominent accounts, and discuss several important objections. |
| Dec. 11 |
TBA Professor William Buschert |
| Jan 8 |
“Philosophical Inquiry, Educational Standards and Freedom” Professor Erin Delathower The role philosophy plays in education is often unexamined, despite philosophy’s historical and methodological connection to inquiry based learning. Given the importance of education to the community, many philosophers care very deeply about the subject. Plato, Rousseau, and Dewey (to name just a few) each took education to be a fundamentally important philosophical endeavor. That said, it is not just up to philosophers to examine the role of philosophy in education. This is so, in part, because the inquiry process is most effective in social matters when the community of inquiry is widely inclusive. In this talk I will suggest that a potential risk of not examining the role of philosophical inquiry in education is that our standards of education – the expectations we have of ourselves to affect our own lives, for instance – may thereby become compromised. Furthermore, when education is the topic of philosophical inquiry, one benefit is that the inquiry process itself becomes a measure of the degree of freedom a community agrees upon having, resulting in the clarification of that community's educational standards. I support this hypothesis by way of empirical evidence drawn from the experience of teaching Philosophy in Education: Introduction to Philosophy for Children. |
| Feb 12 | "Reasons that Explain, Reasons that Justify" Alex Beldan, PhD Candidate, University of Western Ontario |
| Mar. 12 | TBA
Professor Eric Dayton |
PIC Archives: 2012-2013 | 2011-12 | 2010-11 | 2009-10 | 2008-09 | 2007-08 | 2006-07 | 2005-06
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