THEME 1: POLITICS, FREEDOM AND POWER

Talk 1:   4 pm Saturday 9 April

Free speech under threat?

Freedom of speech is a key prerequisite for a functioning democracy. However few argue that free speech should be completely unconstrained. A range of restrictions have always applied on, for example, direct incitement to violence and defamation of character. However in recent times we have seen the emergence of new restrictions in the form of laws against hate speech, vilification and offense and less formal strictures against certain kinds of speech. Are these provisions an unwarranted constraint on free discussion of some of the most important issues facing our society?

Michael Sexton SC is the NSW Solicitor-General and the author of several books on Australian history and politics.  He has written extensively on questions of freedom of speech.

Talk 2:   4 pm Saturday 16 April

Biopolitics as a new paradigm of power

We tend to think of political theory and biological science as hermetically separate realms. Our speaker will draw on the work of the French philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault to challenge this view, especially as it pertains to the nature and exercise of power. She will argue that, late in his career, Foucault achieved a marriage between the biological and political sciences to reveal a new conception of power that he termed “biopolitics”. On this view power is more than just the ability to compel or restrain others: it makes us be someone we would not otherwise have been.

Vanessa Lemm is Professor of Philosophy and head of the School of Humanities at the University of NSW.

Talk 3:   4 pm Saturday 23 April

The Left and identity politics

What does it means when someone describes their politics as “left-wing” or “progressive”? This has always been heavily contested. In the old days some would claim you had to be a Marxist, or at least a socialist. After World War II the social-democratic vision came to predominate: a commitment to a more equal society  through fiscal and regulatory policies, while retaining the benefits of a market economy. More recently things have taken a new turn with the embrace of the politics of culture and identity. Our speaker will argue the latter is a profoundly regrettable development, representing the abnegation the Left’s roots in the Radical Enlightenment.

Peter Baldwin is a former Minister in the Hawke and Keating governments and currently chairs the Blackheath Philosophy Forum.

THEME 2: ETHICS, HAPPINESS AND HUMAN FLOURISHING

Talk 4:   4 pm Saturday 7 May

Ethical theory and the value of friendship

Philosophers since the ancient Greeks have argued that friendship is one of the most valuable elements in a good human life. On the face of it however, an ethical theory like Utilitarianism, that requires us to be impartial between people, has difficulties in accommodating the value of friendship. Recent Utilitarians have given both psychological and empirical arguments claiming to justify the place of friendship within a life governed by Utilitarian principles. Our speaker will consider the plausibility of these Utilitarian arguments for the role of friendship in a good life.

Justin Oakley is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Monash University.

Talk 5:   4 pm Saturday 21 May

The philosophy of happiness

Happiness is commonly believed to be the most important good in life, something that we have reason to seek in our own lives and to bring to others. But what is the nature of happiness? Is happiness really as important as many people suppose? And how do we get it? Drawing on philosophical and empirical research about happiness, this talk critically examines a series of popular answers to these questions.

Caroline West is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sydney.

Talk 6:   4 pm Saturday 4 June

Love and meaning

Perennial philosophical questions about love remain unresolved. Is love an emotion, a mode of willing, or a special kind of cognition? Is love under our control, and can we be evaluated for it? Is love rational, or merely an expression of arbitrary passions? Is love a moral virtue, or a more mixed blessing? Our speaker will begin to sort through these difficult questions by offering an account of love that rejects the common idea that love for persons is distinct from love for other kinds of objects, and that distinguishes love from other psychological phenomena via its connection to the perception of meaning.

Sam Shpall is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sydney.

THEME 3: ALTERNATIVE PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES

Talk 7:   4 pm Saturday 18 June

Sceptical questions from Chinese philosophy

Zhuangzi was a 4th century BCE Chinese philosopher, one of the foundational figures in the philosophy that has come to be known as Daoism. Our speaker will introduce us to some of his ideas, and style of philosophizing, as set out in The Zhuanzgi, a later editing of his work. This text uses unsettling imagery and stories, some of which involve talking animals, deformed trees and hunchbacks, to muddy our presumption of a stable and unchanging world

Karen Lai is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of NSW.

Talk 8:   4 pm Saturday 9 July

Friedrich Nietzsche - From Nazi icon to Leftist idol

In the 1930's Nietzsche's ideas of the Superman, Master Morality, and the Will to Power were hailed by Nazi ideologues, who presented him as a philosophical figurehead of their movement and a prophet of their cause. Hitler himself paid tribute to Nietzsche and financially supported the Nietzsche Archive run by Nietzsche's sister Elizabeth. Thirty years later Nietzsche became the idol of the postmodernist left, which status he continues to enjoy. How could this happen? What does this say about Nietzsche's philosophy?

Ted Sadler was formerly a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Sydney and the Australian Catholic University. He has written several books on German philosophy. He spoke at our very first series of talks way back in 2002.

Talk 9:   4 pm Saturday 23 July

Psychiatry – Folk psychology or cognitive science?

Philosophy of psychiatry faces a tough choice between two competing ways of understanding mental disorders. The folk psychology view puts our everyday common-sense in the driver’s seat. Opposing this, the scientific image view holds that our understanding of mental disorders must come, wholly and solely, from the sciences of the mind. Our speaker will argue that these two perspectives can be reconciled to provide a sound basis for a future psychiatry.

Daniel Hutto is Professor of Philosophical Psychology, University of Wollongong.