Three (Faux) Philosophy Explorations - Short but Sweet

Hello All,
I hope everyone enjoyed last Sunday’s meetup. I think the articles helped stimulate the various discussions we had. When I pick the readings, I am always a little nervous about how they might land. I hope everyone enjoyed the session as much as I did. Thanks to the group that participated.

As facilitator I try to pay attention to the meeting conditions and one minor but emerging irritant is how popular the Red Brick seems be on Sundays, now that we are later in the fall. ***It is very likely that we will switch venues for the next meeting. I am thinking about the Common Café, near city hall, but I need to scope a few options. Stay tuned and make a mental note to double check location for December.***

Our next meeting will be December 15 at 10 am, location to be confirmed.

Without further fanfare, here are the selections.

1. Epiphenomenal Qualia (1982) by Frank Jackson (https://www.sfu.ca/~jillmc/JacksonfromJStore.pdf ) - a highly regarded essay by some, as there are always conflicting views, providing a comprehensive view into the existence of qualia and its impact.
2. FACING UP TO THE PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS (1995) by David J. Chalmers (https://personal.lse.ac.uk/ROBERT49/teaching/ph103/pdf/chalmers1995.pdf ) - a widely cited essay that introduces the ‘hard problem of consciousness’.
3. Who Needs Miracles? On Nature and the Miraculous (2024), Econtalk podcast (https://www.econtalk.org/who-needs-miracles-on-nature-and-the-miraculous-with-alan-lightman/ ) – Econtalk is a longstanding podcast originally framed around viewing the world through an economic lens. It has evolved over its 18 year lifespan, and this episode wanders through various topics, even more far-reaching than usual. Notwithstanding this it picks up on some themes from this month’s meetup.

So, there it is. Hopefully this fits into your schedule.