Lightbringers: A Philosophy Journal

I am a member or supporter of a number of organisations in Australia and Britain. One of them, in the United Kingdom, is Boarding Concern, founded in 2002. It arose out of Nick Duffell’s work with Boarding School Survivors, which he started in 1990.2 Boarding Concern publicises the adverse effects boarding schools can have on children.

What scientific knowledge is and how it works. A Presentation to the Melbourne Philosophy Forum on July 7th, 2013

These concerts are always such an expression of musical talent, and a reminder to myself that, as appreciative as I might be, I have no practical skills in the field. But apparently I can come up here like a stormcrow and bring the mood down.

Presentation to The Philosophy Forum, June 2nd, 2013

1.0 Pre-Modern Dialectics
1.1 Logic can be differentiated into formal or discrete logic and informal or rhetorical logic. The former can include studies in purely formal content, propositional and predicate logic, set theory and so forth. The latter is a study in argumentation and fallacies. (See "Logic in Philosophy", April 18, 2007 http://lightbringers.net/node/33)
1.2 The story of dialectics begins as a type of informal logic used by the Hellenes, especially by Plato's Socratic dialogues, but also Heraclitus argument of the transitory nature of all things and, as a result, the union of contradictions: "We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not.""We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."

I hope you will forgive the formality of my reading a prepared talk – anybody who has heard me speak would know how unusual this is – but the subject I’m speaking about today is complex and I could not hope to do it without detailed notes.

I would like to begin by making two quite general points on the subject of Aboriginal religions:

Spirituality without the Supernatural

Spirituality
In non-supernaturalist terms, ‘Spirituality’ is merely another name for human nature. Or, in other words, Spirituality refers to the Human Spirit. The higher or positive aspects of human nature are, for many people, symbolized by metaphorical personifications known as gods. ('God' in the monotheistic Abrahamic religions). Another way of putting it is that the gods are fictional representations of these aspects.

This is an address about our the current situation of our shared and chosen faith, the way it is organised, how it conducts itself, and its future prospects. It is neither optimistic nor pessimistic in its approach, nor does it seek to besmirch or to eulogise. The address will look at some contemporary examples of successes and failures within Unitarian-Universalism, and tie these into motivational and especially organisational reasons for these effects. The scope of applications include the Unitarian-Universalist churches of the North America and Australia-New Zealand, the Unitarian and Free Christian churches of the United Kingdom and Australia-New Zealand, and indeed all those organisations that come under the umbrella group of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists. In this sense, it is a very broad picture - but one which will also look at some local examples.

In 2011 writer Alain de Botton graced our shelves with a text entitled Religion for Atheists. The argument was that the debate of whether or not what a religion says is true or not wasn't really that interesting. Although he agrees, most certainly, that the argument for God was thoroughly unconvincing what was important was that churches they provided community and consolation, they provided structured events through ritual, they offer meditative retreats and so forth. Perhaps, de Botton, atheists should have their own churches (a Temple de la Raison? I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before). Patrick McCabe's insightful review in Eureka Street notes that criticism came from prominent atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Steve Rose. McCabe notes:

These criticisms demonstrate the gap between de Botton and other atheists. Dawkins and Rose's outlook is missionary, while de Botton's is pastoral. Dawkins and his ilk want to save souls from religion, and promote the good news of atheism. De Botton is more concerned with the spiritual needs of the existing flock.

As a church-going atheist, I was very pleased to hear of this not-a-church "Sunday Assembly". It now means I have four different congregations to visit each month. One is quite spiritual, but also agnostic. Another is extremely political, and not very religious. A third is nominally Christian, but more interested in psychoanalysis and self-healing. And the fourth? Well, we're standing in it, and it is based on a very beautiful statement: "Live better, Help Others, Wonder More".

Such an appeal suits my love of philosophy. Around twenty years ago, I received a stiff piece of cardboard that said that I had a degree of expertise in loving philosophy, and since then I've continued this practise, often autodidactically by talking to the strange daimons in my head, sometimes with other people, and often at a group I convene entitled "The Philosophy Forum".

1. The Revolution of Modern Philosophy

1.1 Most of the history of philosophy has been strongly associated with theology and metaphysics; allinvolve making universal claims about the nature of reality with the traditional classification in Aristotle consisting of ontology (the study of being and existence), theology (the study of the Gods, the existence of the divine, creation, etc), and logic. But much of metaphysics came under criticism with modernity; David Hume argued that much was merely "sophistry and illusion". Many metaphysical questions - considered important for hundreds of years - were considered unprovable, especially following Kant's limits to knowledge.

1.2 In the late 19th century there were the first rumblings of a major revolution in philosophy; American pragmatism (pragma - deed, act from prasso, "to achieve). Consider Peirce's axiom "Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object." (Popular Science Monthly, v12, 1878). It is a philosophy that make propositions which work, with derivations from empiricism and utilitarianism; it links practice and theory. Initial advocates includes William James, (The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, 1907), John Dewey (Democracy and Education, 1916, Knowing and the Known, 1949), George Herbert Mead (Mind, Self, and Society, 1934). William James encapsulated the pragmatists opposition to metaphysical speculations with the remark: "If no practical difference whatever can be traced, then the alternatives mean practically the same thing, and all dispute is idle."