Next Live Dialogue - Mar 5

Cheers Citizen Philosophers,

This is just a friendly reminder that our next Thinking Out Loud gathering will take place this coming Wednesday, Mar 5th, at 7:00 pm as usual. The topic has not yet been chosen, but we have several suggestions.

1. What is friendship?
2. What are our biological property rights?
3. What are our human responsibilities (the flipside of human rights)?

I would like to add another suggestion in light of some recent feedback I receive concerning our last discussion on atonement. It was suggested that I, as the moderator, should steer the discussion away from religious examples out of respect for individuals who might find such examples too sacred or too personal to be discussed in a casual, secular settling. My immediate gut level reaction was that nothing should be off limits to philosophy and certainly, as an individual philosopher, I believe one should reserve the right to question anything and everything that one finds intriguing, including religious topics. The question becomes more complicated when one considers the role of the philosopher in society. It is one thing to philosophize for oneself. It is another to use philosophy to enhance the lives of others. Did Socrates improve the lives of the citizens of Athens by insulting them? Perhaps Socrates had a higher loyalty. Nevertheless, for us, more humble citizen philosophers, the question remains. How do we reconcile sense with sensitivity? How do we best advance the quest for understanding while compromising neither truth nor civility? How do we educate/illuminate without offending? I am not sure how best to phrase the question succinctly. Perhaps something like this:

4. Philosophy and the taboo - what is a philosopher to do?

If you have other topics you would like to add or modifications to these you would like to suggest, email them to me or bring them with you to the meeting. We will decide on the final topic by concensus when we meet on Wednesday.

Hope to see/hear you then.

Regards,

Steve

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Steve Donaldson,
Personal Growth Consultant,
Independent Educator,
Citizen Philosopher
www.citizenphilosopher.com


P.S. If you prefer to just listen in, that is fine as well. The podcast of our conversation will be released on iTunes few days after the live discussion, usually on the following Sunday. Enjoy.