PhiloBfastQs

Back on 2 April 1998 the New York Times ran an article about "Philosophy Cafes" in France. That story, like a seed crystal falling into a supersaturated solution, triggered the formation of a "Philosophy Breakfast" table every Friday morning. We meet at 7:45am not-so-sharp. Usually half a dozen people, plus or minus half a dozen, show up to scratch their heads together for forty-five minutes. Questions that came up during our February and March 2001 round-tables:

• If you woke up after a 100-year-long nap, what questions would you want to ask first?
• What's the rôle of the "Public Intellectual" in society?
• Is there a stylistic contrast between the USA and Europe --- as caricatured in the advice, "Go to America to get something done" --- e.g., real-world engineering versus theoretical formalism? Practical problem-solving vs. intellectualism?
• Two ways to rate a "philosophy" (from Richard Hooker):
  • Does it help you understand the world?
  • Does it help you live your life?
• Must one keep promises made to a dying person after that person is dead?
• On war: Are there "Just" wars? Is "Total" war moral? How about the "Mutual Assured Destruction" strategy of deterrence? Is war just a word for "organized murder"? What differentiates a "police action" from war? When is the initiation of force justified? Is capital punishment ever OK? How about assassination? Or "assassination from a great distance" via bombing or missile attack?
• Can there be a Global Social Contract? When may one country impose its values on another? Or is all morality relative?
• Can one design a morality around entropy minimization? --- that is, assign high weight to preserving historical artifacts, endangered species, human life, etc.?
• What is the trade-off between privacy and safety?
• When faced with a bureaucratic threat, is the archetypal response to "Boldly Reorganize!"?
• When should "sub-cultures" be respected and preserved? When do they become disruptive of the greater social web of trust?
• What makes someone convert from one religion to another? How true is the aphorism, "When you've lost your goals, you become a fanatic and redouble your efforts!"?
• What are the dangers of fame --- the downside of becoming a Nobel Laureate, say?
• What's the distinction between charisma and leadership? Can a leader really cause significant social change, or does s/he more likely simply get in front of a trend that was happening anyway? Is "leadership something that adheres in a person that s/he can use to any purpose"?

(Thanks for ideas & comments to JB, JC, BD, GdM, JJ, KM, AP, LR, BW, and others. See also ^zhurnal 6 October 2000, 2 & 1 August 2000, and 27, 25, 22, 18, 12, and 11 July 2000.)

• Monday, April 09, 2001 at 06:01:59 (EDT) = Datetag20010409

TopicPhilosophy - TopicSociety

(correlates: MoralToPhysical, HighGlider, ThinkingThroughPrejudice, ...)