Wed 27 Sept “Today’s Labour Party – More Methodism than Marxism?” Heidi Alexander

The philosophy programme continues on Wednesday 27 September 2023 when Heidi Alexander will be speaking on ‘Today’s Labour Party – More Methodism than Marxism?‘  We will be meeting as ever at the Friends Meeting House on Eastcott Hill at 7.30pm and all are very welcome to attend. 

Heidi Alexander is the latest of our party political speakers following in the footsteps of Robert Buckland, Conservative MP, who came to speak during the last philosophy season.  Heidi Alexander is the Labour Party candidate for South Swindon.  She was born in Swindon and attended Churchfields School and New College.  She was the Shadow Secretary of State for Health from September 2015 to June 2016 and Deputy Mayor of London for Transport from May 2018 to December 2021.  

The phrase that the Labour Party owes more to Methodism than Marxism’ comes from Morgan Phillips, General Secretary of the Labour Party from 1944 to 1961, and is thought to have been coined by his speechwriter, a young Denis Healey!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Alexander

Wed 13th Sept “Derek Parfit – Can Ethics be Objective” John Little

The new-look philosophy season begins this coming Wednesday on 13 September 2023 when John Little will be speaking on ‘Derek Parfit – Can Ethics be Objective?’ We will be meeting at 7.30pm next Wednesday at the Friends Meeting House and all are very welcome. John says about Derek Parfit:

At the end of his brilliant Reasons and Persons (1984) Parfit looks forward to the growth of secular Ethics:

‘Belief in God, or in many gods, prevented the predevelopment of moral reasoning. Disbelief in God, openly admitted by a majority, is a recent event, not yet completed. Because this event is so recent, non-religious ethics is at a very early stage. We cannot predict whether, as in Mathematics, we will all reach agreement … it is not irrational to have high hopes.’

In the following years Parfit became increasingly distressed that philosophers could not forge an agreement on a single system of Ethics … on what matters… or if there was any convincing reason to do anything at all. And if not, that life was meaningless.

So he spent twenty years trying to fuse together the various rival ethical theories (Deontology, Consequentialism and Contractualism) before publishing his monumental On What Matters (2011). At four volumes and 2,500 pages, it is said to be the only work of moral philosophy visible from space.


But does he succeed? And if he doesn’t are all of our lives meaningless and futile

See you there on Wednesday

We’re Back – 61st great year

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable, if slightly rainy, summer.
The good news is that the new-look Autumn Season is beginning in two weeks time on Wednesday 13 September at 7.30pm at the Friends Meeting House.  I am attaching  the Programme.  The main things to note are:
1. We are  meeting on Wednesday evenings.
2. We are meeting on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.
3. We are meeting in person at the Friends Meeting House from 7.30pm to 9.00pm.
The first event is John Little speaking on the famed modern philosopher Derek Parfit and the vexed question of whether ethics can be objective.  It should be excellent and I will send out more information nearer the time.
I hope to see you at a meeting soon – it would  be great if you could pass on the programme to anyone you know who may be interested in coming along.

link to latest programme