Discussion Group Topics

[Sarah Cox]

Good times last night! Here's our list of potential topics for the next few meetings:

• Paradigm shifts in science (e.g. Ptolemy, Kepler, Gallileo)
• Science Wars/Sokol Hoax
• Consciousness
• Objectivism
• Relativism
• Anti-Elitism/Anti-Intellectualism/Anti-Science attitude and how to fix it

Also, here's the article I referenced last night, particularly for the last comment from David and his "belief system": http://www.austinpost.org/content/your-computer-not-making-you-sick-0

Cheers!
Sarah

[Michael Ignatowski]

I'll add to this great list a topic that came up at the very end - a discussion of "The Technological Singularity"   - which I'd be happy to lead. 

Mike Ignatowski

[Iain]

Steve's message about this reminded me we have yet to pick a topic (or
possibly several related topics to allow for the discussion to range
further).

I had the impression that Relativism seemed to get brought up a lot,
and I'd be interested to know what that term actually means to people
(I'm still not sure I have a clear definition in my own mind). Also, I
suppose it's related to the Sokal hoax to some degree so that can also
be worked into the discussion.

My personal choices 2 & 3 would first be Mike's topic of 'The
Technological Singularity', which is a new term to me; second, the
topic of general anti-intellectualism/-elitism. We did briefly touch
on the latter last week, with the talk centred on differences between
the Anglo-American and European cultures (for want of better labels).
European intellectualism is another way to work in the Sokal hoax too,
since the French solipsists* were one of his main targets.

Either way, I think there should be some agreement as to what general
topic is going to be discussed, as the last meeting was a little
unstructured.

Iain

*I prefer the term 'bullshit artists' myself, but maybe someone with a
better grounding in philosophy can enlighten me.


On Sep 15, 8:31 pm, Michael Ignatowski <mike.ignatow...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I'll add to this great list a topic that came up at the very end - a
> discussion of "The Technological Singularity"   - which I'd be happy to
> lead.
>
> Mike Ignatowski
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 10:26 AM, Sarah Cox <sarahcox...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Good times last night! Here's our list of potential topics for the next few
> > meetings:
>

> >    - Paradigm shifts in science (e.g. Ptolemy, Kepler, Gallileo)
> >    - Science Wars/Sokol Hoax
> >    - Consciousness
> >    - Objectivism
> >    - Relativism
> >    - Anti-Elitism/Anti-Intellectualism/Anti-Science attitude and how to

[Steve Bratteng]

So, how about cultural relativism as the topic? 

--

Steve

[der Brat]

 

[Iain]

Yep, here's my vote.