tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-100981152025-07-30T03:17:55.857+10:00The Blog Of The University of Newcastle Philosophy ClubEditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986439579966977930noreply@blogger.comBlogger486125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-46822124493744004292008-12-11T15:01:00.000+11:002008-12-11T15:16:04.273+11:00

I was recently in Kuala Lumpur with my 4 year old daughter. We saw a lot of Hindu temples, and my daughter was impressed by all the gods on their rooves.One day, we were walking by another temple and she asked, "Dad, are there Gods in Australia?""I don't know, what do you think?" I replied."I think they all died." she concluded.

Bill Pascoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04516651822009868115noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-61122406866567947892008-11-21T12:45:00.003+11:002008-11-21T12:56:49.745+11:00

Apparently we missed the World Philosophy Day yesterday on the 20th of November. This is not too surprising considering Australia held no events to support the initiative.Kellie Tranter laments our Government's inaction on the issue and postulates some questions Australia should be thinking about in On Line Opinion.list of other country's events.

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-3952522904085648872008-11-03T00:59:00.004+11:002008-11-03T01:31:50.162+11:00

Unless you have been living under a rock you may have heard of this: Mandatory Internet Filtering. In an effort to (ostensibly at least) "protect the children", there is a plan to install filters in all Australian ISPs. Under the plan there will be two levels of filtering. One level will be optional, and will be 'child friendly'. The other , according to Minister for Broadband et al, Senator

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-63237014739528090262008-10-24T18:29:00.009+11:002008-10-24T18:57:01.885+11:00

With the impending collapse of the entire capitalist system, the revolution must surely be at hand. More likely the media needs fuel to feed its ever expanding furnace, and Marx is useful fodder, as the most tenuous link is all that is needed to run with a story, especially in the world of opinion and columnists.What we have learned in the past few weeks is if you are not promoting the individual

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-32311066078537767222008-09-17T12:52:00.004+10:002008-09-17T13:02:11.717+10:00

Richard Wright is with Syd now, performing that great gig in the sky. Wright was the keyboardist for Pink Floyd and father in law of Guy Pratt, the man who played bass in place of Roger Waters after he left. Pratt is a fantastic bassist, sadly Waters is not.Echoes, part 1 off Live at Pompei (originally off the album Meddle). Wright is the beardy guy singing.

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-27893615755410094232008-09-17T12:21:00.004+10:002008-09-17T12:28:05.324+10:00

The Australian have run a piece about the 1996 Sokal scandal by Simon Blackburn, a professor of philosophy from Cambridge, taken from his book How to Read Hume.Misadventures in the quest for scientific truth

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-88348408855736761502008-09-10T17:17:00.004+10:002008-09-10T17:23:19.645+10:00

Here is an article by Carlin Romano about Bernard-Henri Levy and his new book newly out in the US Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism from the Australian.

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-67070665073138131612008-09-10T17:01:00.008+10:002008-09-12T18:21:22.579+10:00

The time has finally come for CERN to fire up the old Hadron Collider and find some God particles in a mini big-bang. I for one welcome our new black hole overlords.Summary by PHD ComicsCern and the large Hadron Colider from Radio National's The Science ShowCern Colider ready for power up from the BBCPaul Davies on LatelineBBC Today's On the Hunt for the Higgs Boson. Contains audio of Stephen

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-89355839259223506292008-09-10T16:52:00.003+10:002008-09-10T17:00:02.424+10:00

The Scottish have built a statue of economist and philosopher Adam Smith.Article from The AustralianArticle from adamsmith.org Discuss!

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-55065299124899166192008-05-10T10:38:00.003+10:002008-05-10T11:16:31.190+10:00

Hey! Nietzsche! Leave Them Kids Alone!Free event at Bangarra Theatre, 14:00 to 15:00 on Saturday 24thCraig Schuftan will talk about Nietzsche's theories on music and opera.David Rieff on ABC Radio National’s Book ShowTicketed event at Pier 2/3, Downstairs, 10:00 to 11:00 on Friday 23rd.The son of Susan Sontag will talk about 'Swimming in a Sea of Death', a memoir of his mother's illness.The

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-40748436511047352352008-05-09T11:59:00.005+10:002008-05-09T12:19:50.894+10:00

There are plans to dig up the grave of Friedrich Nietzsche in Rocken, Germany to get to his precious precious coal. It turns out that Nietzsche carcus guards a brown coal seam.The site was earmarked for mining in the 1980's when he was blacklisted by the then communist regime who failed to separate him from his sister's revision of him as the official philosopher of Nazi Germany. Now for the

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-66611724012731953632008-05-09T10:26:00.005+10:002008-05-09T10:40:00.560+10:00

David Chalmers was an attendance at a Buddhist conference on happiness held in Sydney this week. This is an Article from the Sydney Morning Herald about the conference. Chalmers position apparently is that the 'bad' emotions are as fun as happiness.Do we value happiness above what it is worth?

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-63436666054664334082008-04-20T12:55:00.010+10:002008-04-20T13:54:38.452+10:00

The Sydney Writers Festival, on between the 19th and 25th of May, is hosting Simon Critchley as one of its speakers. Critchley, who is a professor of philosophy at the New School of Social Research, will be talking about death at the festival at three events. His latest book is entitled 'The Book of Dead Philosophers'. Critchley has previously written about the ethics of deconstruction.His events

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-67038000937359703772008-04-20T12:38:00.003+10:002008-04-20T12:54:05.216+10:00

Charles Darwin (along with that other Charles, Mr Sanders Pierce) died on the 19th of April, which just happened to be yesterday. To roughly coincide with the day, there has been a substantial new addition to the electronic catalogue of Darwin's writings at The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. The new release includes the first draft of his theory of evolution and The Decent of Man, notes

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-45173856929539188672008-04-20T12:28:00.003+10:002008-04-20T13:50:24.157+10:00

Keeping with posting obituaries several weeks after the event, John Wheeler, the theoretical physicist who coined the terms ‘Black Hole’ and ‘Worm Hole’ died last week on the 13th of April. Wheeler had collaborated with Albert Einstein, and that is about as much as I know. Instead of trying to write up something more substantial, I have decided instead to link to an interview with Wheeler by Paul

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-52407239629891073992008-03-11T17:22:00.004+11:002008-04-20T12:35:49.860+10:00

A little belated: Gary Gygax, the man who co-invented Dungeons and Dragons, author of the first edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and co-founder of TSR, Inc. (tactical studies rules), died last week on the 4th of March.While strictly speaking not a philosopher, in fact not a philosopher at all, I always liked Pete's description of philosophy degrees as 'top gun for nerds'. In this vein I

Captain Kickarsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09761360601256251604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-31594875143300886322008-02-22T11:26:00.000+11:002008-02-22T11:28:29.778+11:00

Aware that many of the members are fans of polemics, I would commend AC Grayling’s Against All Gods. I would even commend the work to those members of theistic persuasion, and those that maintain a belief fairies and/or goblins...

MHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09068975650320612418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-65368595780100862662008-02-22T11:21:00.001+11:002008-02-22T11:25:54.679+11:00

The Sixty-Third Philosopher’s Carnival is presently being hosted by a Mr Noah Greenstein. Mr Greenstein’s theme is comedy.Now, if only we had Aristotle’s work on comedy …

MHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09068975650320612418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-11885078258806770372008-02-05T07:58:00.000+11:002008-02-05T08:01:01.209+11:00

The Sixty-Second Philosopher’s Carnival is presently being hosted by Meaning More.

Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986439579966977930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-58472066444885372922008-01-31T15:06:00.000+11:002008-01-31T15:11:30.564+11:00

The Executive, having had some preliminary discussions about the Club in 2008, is asking for comments and suggestions.Having organised the Club since 2005, the aim for 2008 is to engage the large membership we attract. The Executive intends to maintain the anarchic organisational practice that it has long adopted. It is this will allow for members to organise a vibrant range of activities.At

Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986439579966977930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-46370620496196172152008-01-30T09:58:00.000+11:002008-01-30T10:06:01.985+11:00

Professor Harold Tarrant, of the University of Newcastle, has translated the first volume of Proclus’ Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. The translation is published by Cambridge University Press. [Thanks to NDPR.]

Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986439579966977930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-36824863111693223232008-01-22T09:23:00.000+11:002008-01-22T09:29:53.349+11:00

In early December (I recently rediscovered the announcement), Morgan Luck (of Charles Sturt University), Sarah Bachelard (St Mark’s National Theological Centre), and Nick Trakakis (Monash University) announced the formation of the Australian Philosophy of Religion Association.An inaugural conference has been scheduled for 2008.

Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986439579966977930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-50386332465350757282008-01-22T09:20:00.000+11:002008-01-22T09:23:01.750+11:00

The sixty-first Philosopher’s Carnival is presently being hosted by Inconsistent Thoughts.

Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986439579966977930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-69699020772381305202008-01-14T15:34:00.001+11:002008-01-14T15:41:58.604+11:00

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Sydney will be hosting ‘Philosophical Issues and Philosophical Methods’, a one day workshop in conjunction with the Australasian Postgraduate Philosophy Conference.The workshop, on the 25th of March in the calm sandstone surrounds of the Quad, is intended for honours students and beginning postgraduate students in philosophy.Australasian

MHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09068975650320612418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10098115.post-79216223197812845362008-01-10T13:23:00.000+11:002008-01-10T13:32:09.239+11:00

After the comments at the close of the Dead Philosophers' Carnival, some discussion has ensued regarding how appropriate the attitude was, and how appropriate it was (or not) to actually express it. Since I'm now acting unilaterally from my co-editor, I've posted this under my own login.Two discussions of this (amongst other things) can be found at Jared's Sportive Thoughts and Annie's AnniemizI

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2