The Russellian Society

Archives: Philosophy around Sydney: Second semester, 2004

University of New South Wales -- 1pm-3pm, Monday 2 August -- Newton 307. Erin Manning of Concordia University will present a paper entitled "Violent Touch: Erring Toward Experience" for the School of Media and Communications and School of Philosophy seminar series. For more information, please contact Andrew Murphie or Paul Patton.

University of New South Wales -- 4pm-6pm, Monday 2 August -- Webster 327. Brian Massumi of the University of Montreal will present a paper entitled "Fear (The Spectrum Said)" as part of the School of Media and Communications and School of Philosophy seminar series. For more information, please contact Andrew Murphie or Paul Patton.

University of Sydney, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 2 August -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Room 450, Level 4, Carslaw Building. Jason Grossman of the University of Sydney will talk on "A Subjectivist�s Guide to Objective Chance... and an Objectivist�s Guide to Subjective Chance". For further information, please contact Gail Stewart White at [email protected].

Macquarie University -- 11am, Tuesday 3 August -- Building W6A, Room 720. Roslyn Diprose of the University of New South Wales will present a paper for the Macquarie philosophy seminar series entitled "'Where your people from, girl?' Gender, Race and Place in Beneath Clouds". All welcome.

University of New South Wales -- 1pm, Tuesday 3 August -- Morven Brown Building, Room G55. Stuart Murray of the University of Toronto will be presenting a paper for session 2 of the UNSW philosophy seminars entitled "Post-Textual Ethics: Foucault's Rhetorical Will". For further information, contact Catherine Mills at 9385 2319 or [email protected]. All welcome.

Philorum -- 6pm, Wednesday 4 August -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. No general talk this week, but instead there's quick issues (two minutes presentation each issue). Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. For further details, visit the website.

Russoc -- 6.30pm, Wednesday 4 August -- Common Room, Level 4, Holme Building, University of Sydney. Dr John Bacon will be speaking on "Family values and naughty acts". Cost: Russoc members $3; non-members $6; annual membership $5 (you can join on the night).

Continental Philosophy Group -- 3pm, Sunday 8 August -- The Rustic Cafe, 560 Crown Street, Surry Hills, upstairs. No�l Tointon will be speaking on "A Current Controversy: Is There a Contemporary Sea-Change? Does the Last Wave of a Postmodernist Signal a Re-Arrival or a Final Departure?". Is there a current difference in how "cutting-edge" texts are created and received? Or, is the past merely recycled? In this paper the role of reflexivity in a literary text will be examined to establish that a sea-change in the nature of cutting-edge contemporary texts has started to take place in a trend that goes beyond the postmodern. All welcome. Please visit the website for further information.

University of New South Wales -- 4pm-6pm, Monday 9 August -- Webster 327. Charles J Stivale of Wayne State University will be speaking on "'Gilles Deleuze, The Folds of Pedagogy and Friendship" as part of the School of Media and Communications and School of Philosophy seminar series. For more information, please contact Andrew Murphie or Paul Patton.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 9 August -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad. Mark Bevir of the University of California, Berkeley will speak on "Life after God: An Encounter with Postmodernism". For further information, please contact Moira Gatens at [email protected]. All welcome.

Macquarie University -- 11am, Tuesday 10 August -- Room 720, Building W6A. Professor Shane O'Neill of Queen's University, Belfast, will present a paper for the Macquarie philosophy seminar series entitled "Reason and Utopia. Can Philosophy sustain Social Hope?". For more information, please contact Dr Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected]. All welcome.

St James Ethics Centre -- 12.30pm, Tuesday 10 August -- meet at Martin Place. A circle of chairs is set up in the street and passers-by are invited to talk to a philosopher: the centre's Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff.

Russoc discussion group -- 4pm, Tuesday 10 August -- meet in Holme Courtyard (look for the Asian guy with philosophy books laid out ont he table). Hear new ideas, test your own ideas, be philosophically inspired, and actually get some stimulating conversation. Agenda will potentially include: a report on the Philosophy Cafe event "Betrayal of the intellectuals", a discussion of John Bacon's talk on family values, a discussion on the role and effect of cinema, and a presentation by Brad Weslake of some ideas about causation (to do background reading for Brad Weslake's talk, click here). All welcome!

University of New South Wales -- 4pm-6pm, Tuesday 10 August -- Room 211, Morven Brown Building. Professor Mark Bevir of Berkeley will be speaking on "Governance and Interpretation: What are the Implications of Postfoundationalism?". For further information, contact Catherine Mills at 9385-2319 or [email protected]. All welcome.

Simone Weil Lectures on Human Value -- 6.30pm, Tuesday 10 August -- Metcalfe Auditorium, State Library, Macquarie Street. Stephen Mulhall of the University of Oxford will be speaking on "The Conversation of Mankind". Philosophers have always been interested in what it is for a creature to count as a language-using animal, a speaker; but few have connected this with the capacity to contribute to a conversation. In this lecture, Professor Mulhall discusses two rather different recent attempts to do this, developed by Rush Rhees and Hans-Georg Gadamer, and relates the results of their work to Richard Rorty's more recent, and perhaps more well-known, ongoing attempts to re-conceive the business of philosophy as a matter of contributing to the conversation of mankind. Cost: students free; others $11. Bookings essential. Phone 9273-1770 or e-mail [email protected].

2nd Tuesday Philosophy Forum -- 7pm, Tuesday 10 August -- Crows Nest Centre, cnr of Ernest Street and Willoughby Road, Crows Nest. Zig-Zag debate on free will and determinism: problem will be discussed as a group, and then audience will be split into two debating teams. Cost: $10 adult; $5 concession. Please book with Marg Hamilton by e-mail, giving your phone number for confirmation, or phone Marg at 9953-6374 or 0418-457-877. For further details, please visit the website.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 10 August -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Peter Bowden will be speaking on "Corporations and Ethics". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Steki Taverna -- 7pm, Thursday 12 August -- 2 O'Connelll Street, Newtown. John Sutton of Macquarie University will be speaking on "Empedocles: Love and Strife". Evening includes a Greek banquet, a philosophical presentation, a dramatic performance, and free-flowing discussion. Cost: $35. Bookings essential: 9516-2191. For further details, please visit the website.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 16 August -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad. Professor Shane O'Neill of Queen's University, Belfast, will speak on "Democratic Justice in the Constitutional State and Beyond" for the Sydney Philosophy Research Seminars. All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

University of Sydney, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 16 August -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Room 450, Level 4, Carslaw Building. Adam Lucas will talk on "Machine Technology in the Pre-Modern Period". For further information, please contact Gail Stewart White at [email protected].

University of New South Wales -- 1pm-3pm, Tuesday 17 August -- Morven Brown Building, room 211. Professor Shane O'Neill of Queens University will be speaking on "Reason and Utopia: Can Philosophy Sustain Social Hope?". For further information, please contact Catherine Mills on 9385-2319 [email protected]. All welcome!

Macquarie University -- 10am-3pm, Wednesday 18 August -- building W6A, room 720. Free workshop on �Themes in Contemporary Critical Theory�. Workshop includes papers by Shane O'Neill of Queen's University Belfast on �Democratic Justice in the Constitutional State and Beyond�, Emmanuel Renault of the Ecole Normale Superieur on �Democracy and the Experience of Injustice: A Critique of Habermas's Theory of Justice�, Nicholas Smith of Macquarie University on �Culture and the Economy - a response to Honneth and Fraser�, Craig Browne of Sydney University on �The End of Immanent Critique?�, and Jean-Philippe Deranty of Macquarie University on �Injustice, violence and social struggle. The critical potential of Honneth's theory of recognition�. Papers can be downloaded from: http://www.crsi.mq.edu.au/events_future.html#aug. If you would like to attend please notify Obelia Modjeska at 9850-9171 or [email protected].

Philorum -- 6pm, Wednesday 18 August -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. No general talk this week, but instead there's quick issues (two minutes presentation each issue). Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. For further details, please visit the website.

Sydney Mechanics� School of Arts -- 12.30pm-1pm, Thursday 19 August -- Mitchell Theatre, Level 1, SMSA, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney. A lunch time conversation with Richard Boele and Peter Caldwell, chaired by Eva Cox, on the topic of �Can we tell if an organisation is acting ethically?�. Corporate social responsibility requires an organisation to behave ethically in all its functions: for instance as employer, purchaser, advocacy group, marketer, neighbour, product maker and/or service provider. So it is difficult to assess how ethical a corporation or any other organisation may be as many prefer to hide their weak spots and sins. Cost: free admission; light refreshments provided. For further information please contact the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts on (02) 9262-7300.

Steki Taverna -- 7pm, Thursday 19 August -- 2 O'Connelll Street, Newtown. Evening includes a Greek banquet, a philosophical presentation, a dramatic performance, and free-flowing discussion. Professor Bernard Gert of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, will be speaking on the ethics (or lack of) "Cheating". His talk will be accompanied by a philosophy play, "The Wheels of Fortune", written by Edward Spence. Cost: $35. Bookings essential: 9516-2191. For further details, please visit the website.

University of New South Wales -- 3.30pm-5.30pm, Friday 20 August -- Morven Brown Building, room 211. Professor Hugh Silverman of Stony Brook University will be speaking on "Living on Borderlines -- Ethics of The Event: Merleau-Ponty And Derrida". For further information, please contact Catherine Mills on 9385-2319 [email protected]. All welcome!

Cafe Scientific -- 7pm, Friday 20 August -- College Street Foyer Cafe, Australian Museum, College Street. "Are you conscious right now?" Join Dr Susan Blackmore (UK expert on consciousness), Dr Alun Anderson (Editor-in-Chief, New Scientist magazine) and Dr Paul Willis (ABC TV Catalyst) for a drink and discussion on the nature of consciousness: How do you know when you are conscious? Could you ever be "aware" of being unconscious? Does the stream of consciousness really exist? What can we do to develop our own unique consciousness? And what the heck is consciousness anyway? These ideas will be challenged and investigated with questions from you -- the audience. Doors open 6.30pm - come early, have a drink and listen to some live jazz before the discussion starts. Dinner, snacks and drinks (non-alcoholic, plus wine and beer) available throughout the evening at cafe prices. The event will be recorded for broadcast on ABC Radio. For further details, please visit the website.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 23 August -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad. Professor Mark Lance of Georgetown University will speak on "Defeasibility and the Normative Grasp of Context" for the Sydney Philosophy Research Seminars. All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Sydney Opera House -- 6.30pm and 9pm, Monday 23 August -- The Studio, Sydney Opera House. Music matters immensely to most people, perhaps all people. But why does it matter, and how does it affect us? This event seeks to unravel the riddle of music, finding clues in compelling words, sounds and images. The core of the program melds spoken word and vocals from Simon Critchley, renowned New York-based philosophy professor and author, with striking music and images from award-winning musician and film-maker, John Simmons. Join Critchley and Simmons in their first live collaboration and discover the inherently human links between music and philosophy, our self and our desires. Cost: adult $25; concession $15. Please visit the website for more information or call 9250-7777.

Macquarie University -- 11am, Tuesday 24 August -- Building W6A, room 720. Professor Hugh Silverman will present a paper for the Macquarie philosophy seminar series entitled "Being Postmodern Plural". For further information, please contact Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected].

St James Ethics Centre -- 12.30pm, Tuesday 24 August -- meet at Martin Place. A circle of chairs is set up in the street and passers-by are invited to talk to a philosopher: the centre's Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff.

Russoc discussion group -- 4pm, Tuesday 24 August -- meet in the Wentworth Building, level 5, room 4. Hear new ideas, test your own ideas, be philosophically inspired, and actually get some stimulating conversation. Agenda announced in the "Discussion" section of this website. All welcome!

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 24 August -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Derek Maitland will be speaking on the Philosophy of Whistle-blowing. Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Gleebooks -- 6.30pm for 7pm start, Thursday 26 August -- "Gleebooks" bookstore, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. The School of Communication, Charles Sturt University and the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics cordially invite you to the launch of the book Advertising Ethics by Edward Spence and Brett Van Heekeren. The book will be launched by Robert Koltai, Chairman, Advertising Standards Bureau and Deputy Chair, Australian Association of National Advertisers. Light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP by Monday 23 August. Contact Wendy Merton at 02-6338-4131 or [email protected] .

Media Central: Politicians in the Archives: ABC Censorship? -- 6.30pm for 7pm start, Thursday 26 August -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. Recently, the ABC refused to allow filmmaker Judy Rymer to use archival news footage in her film about refugee issues "Punished Not Protected" without the permission of the politicians involved. We are planning to show part of the film, plus the Media Watch segment that drew attention to the ABC's actions. On the panel will be filmmaker Judy Rymer, Richard Harris Executive Director of the Australian Screen Directors Association and lawyer Roy Baker from the NSW Communications Law Centre. Michael Organ, Greens MP in the Federal House of Representatives (and former archivist at the University of Wollongong) will be the chairperson. Robyn Watts has also been invited to delineate the ABC policy and explain its implications for filmmakers. The forum will be part of MEDIA CENTRAL -- a series of free monthly forums devoted to contemporary media issues, presented by Macquarie University's Media Department. This month's Media Central is jointly hosted by the Media Department and the University's Centre for Social Inclusion.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 27 August -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week is "The ethics of abortion". Guests include Mianna Lotz (CAPPE) and Penny Davies (La Trobe).

Russoc -- 6.30pm, Friday 27 August -- MacCallum & Cullen rooms (adjoining), Holme Building, University of Sydney. Professor Tim Crane of University College, London, will give a talk entitled "Could science tell us everything about consciousness?". Cost: Russoc members $3; non-members $6; annual membership $5 (you can join on the night). Having trouble finding the Holme Building? It's D14 on this map. It's very close to the Footbridge Theatre on Parramatta Road. All welcome!

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 30 August -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad. Dr Peter Bowden will speak on "Philosophy's Dilemma: the Institutionalising of Ethics" for the Sydney Philosophy Research Seminars. All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Russoc -- 6.30pm, Monday 30 August -- Buttery room, Holme Building, University of Sydney. Professor Kati Farkas of Central European University will speak on the topic "Of the nature of the human mind and that it is more easily known than the body". Cost: Russoc members $3; non-members $6; annual membership $5 (you can join on the night). Having trouble finding the Holme Building? It's D14 on this map. It's very close to the Footbridge Theatre on Parramatta Road. All welcome!

University of Sydney, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 30 August -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Room 450, Level 4, Carslaw Building. Peter Menzies of Macquarie University will talk on "Singular Causation: An Introduction". For further information, please contact Gail Stewart White at [email protected].

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 31 August -- Philosophy Seminar Room, room 720, building W6A. Professor Tim Crane of University College, London will speak on "Intentional Relations and Intentional Existence". For further information, please visit the website. All welcome!

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 1 September -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. Open forum this week. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Please visit the website for more information.

Popcorn Taxi -- 7.30pm, Wednesday 1 September -- Valhalla Cinema, 166 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Movie entitled "Chasing God" + panel discussion. A sellout show at Melbourne Popcorn Taxi, "Chasing God" takes you on a journey to the Vatican and the Ganges, the Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock Mosque, the Golden Temple and the Dalai Lama Temple in the Himalayas -- followed by daring and provocative scenes of a world out of balance. First-time film-makers Lenny De Vries and Dylan Burton set out on a worldwide quest to discover a paradoxically unifying principle that may well lie beyond the divisive interpretation of God. After the screening, join Robin Hughes, who will chair the panel of clerics, atheists and film-makers for a special Q&A session on this most topical of subjects. Cost: $13 adult; $11 concession. Tickets go on sale from 6.30pm on the night. Cash only.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Thursday 2 September -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Louis Dupr� of Yale University will be speaking on the precarious relation between philosophy and religion. Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website or contact Dr Matthew Del Novo at [email protected].

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 3 September -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week is "The ontology of music".

Blackheath Philosophy Forum -- 4pm, Saturday 4 September -- Blackheath Public School Hall, corner of Great Western Highway and Leichhardt Street, Blackheath. Rachel Ankenny, Director of the History and Philosophy of Science unit at Sydney University, will be speaking on "What does it mean to be 'genetically responsible'?". This talk will continue our exploration of the issues arising from modern genetic technology. It will take up matters such as the ethical issues arising from decision-making for reproduction, reproductive technologies, genetic testing and screening. Cost: $5. For further details, please visit the website.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 6 September -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad. Dr Tim Crane of University College, London will speak on "The Greatest Chasm in the Philosophy of Mind" for the Sydney Philosophy Research Seminars. All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm, Tuesday 7 September -- meet in the Wentworth Building, level 5. Hear new ideas, test your own ideas, be philosophically inspired, and actually get some stimulating conversation. Agenda announced in the "Discussion" section of this website. All welcome!

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 7 September -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Hazel Popp will be speaking on "Moral Relativism". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

The Italian Effect: Radical Thought, Biopolitics and Cultural Subversion -- Thursday 9 to Saturday 11 September -- Sydney University. In the new millennium the work of Italian thinkers is having a profound impact upon intellectual activity. This conference will address the current and potential international impact of radical Italian thought, focusing not only on Negri and Agamben but also on the work of Franco Berardi (Bifo), Ida Dominijanni, Paolo Virno, and others. Discounts apply to registration before the end of August. Registration forms are available from the website.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 10 September -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week is "The war on terror". Discussants will include Matthew Sharpe (Deakin University), Jessica Wolfendale (Monash University), and Ashley Woodward (University of Melbourne).

Continental Philosophy Group -- 3pm, Sunday 12 September -- The Rustic Cafe, 560 Crown Street, Surry Hills, upstairs. Sandy Yang will be speaking on Confucius. Please visit the website for further information.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 13 September -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad. Professor Katalin Farkas of Central European University will present a paper entitled "Time, Truth, Indexicals" for the Sydney Philosophy Research Seminars. All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

University of Sydney, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 13 September -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Room 450, Level 4, Carslaw Building. John Raftery of the University of South Australia will talk on "Nothing New to Medical Science: The Suppression of Traumatic Experience, 1914-1945". For further information, please contact Gail Stewart White at [email protected].

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 14 September -- Philosophy Seminar Room, room 720, building W6A. Dr Fiona Jenkins (ANU) will present a paper. For further information, please visit the website. All welcome!

2nd Tuesday Philosophy Forum -- 7pm, Tuesday 14 September -- Crows Nest Centre, corner of Ernest Street and Willoughby Road, Crows Nest. Professor Huw Price of the University of Sydney will deliver a talk entitled, "Can the future affect the past?". In physics and in ordinary life we expect things to bear the scars of past battles, but not future battles -- in other words, we assume that causation only works forwards. Physicists have known for 50 years that a "symmetric" view of causation might solve some of the puzzles of quantum theory, but most have thought the cure worse than the disease. So there are more physicists who believe in "many worlds" and other strange interpretations of quantum mechanics rather than abandon "obvious" truths about causation. Which view is right? Cost: $15 adult; $10 concession. Please book with Marg Hamilton by e-mail, giving your phone number for confirmation, or phone Marg at 9953-6374 or 0418-457-877. For further details, please visit the website.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 15 September -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. Open forum this week. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Please visit the website for more information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 17 September -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week is: "The Corporation". The initial discussion (involving special guest Robert Young) will focus on questions such as: Do corporations have any moral responsibilities in virtue of them having legal responsibilities? Do corporations have moral responsibilities above and beyond their legal responsibilities? Is the corporation�s primary responsibility to maximize profit for its shareholders? Is this a moral responsibility? What happens (and what should happen) if there is a conflict between this responsibility and other responsibilities (moral or otherwise)?

Blackheath Philosophy Forum -- 4pm, Saturday 18 September -- Blackheath Public School Hall, corner of Great Western Highway and Leichhardt Street, Blackheath. Brook Emery and John Bennett will debate on the topic, "Philosophy and poetry: collaboration or competition?". Brook will contest the perceived split between thinking and feeling and argue that, while the two discourses go about their businesses differently, they can borrow from and refresh each other. John, on the other hand, will argue that poetry, philosophy (and the sciences) are fundamentally different ways of understanding the world. Cost: $5. For further details, please visit the website.

Drinks with Tim Crane -- 8pm, Saturday 18 September -- Lord Nelson pub in the Rocks. Following last year's "Scotch on The Rocks" evening with John Divers, some staff and students from the Macquarie University philosophy department will be drinking with Tim Crane on Saturday 18 September. Tim returns to the UK on the 23rd. All are welcome to join us. In line with the finest Australian philosophical traditions, shandy-drinking will not be allowed. Details of the pub can be found at the website. But if you can�t find the pub on the evening, please contact Alex Miller at 0415-737-765.

Macquarie University -- 9.30am-5.30pm, Monday 20 September -- Building W6A, room 107. The Department of Philosophy of Macquarie University is conducting a one-day workshop on mental causation. Speakers include Tim Crane of University College, London, David Braddon-Mitchell of the University of Sydney, Peter Menzies of Macquarie University and Daniel Stolkjar of the Australian National University. All are welcome, and registration is free. But please e-mail Dr Alex Miller to register: [email protected].

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 20 September -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad. Professor Robert Wilson of the University of Alberta will speak on "A Puzzle about Constitution: Cohesive Physical Mereology and the Relational/Intrinsic Constraint" for the Sydney Philosophy Research Seminars. All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

University of New South Wales -- 1pm-3pm, Tuesday 21 September -- Room G55, Morven Brown Building. Dr Simon Lumsden will be speaking on "Responsibility and Individuation in Heidegger's Being and Time". All welcome! For further details, please contact Dr Catherine Mills at 9385-2319 or [email protected].

St James Ethics Centre -- 12.30pm, Tuesday 21 September -- meet at Martin Place. A circle of chairs is set up in the street and passers-by are invited to talk to a philosopher: the centre's Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm, Tuesday 21 September -- across the road from Sydney Uni. Movie night. Will be screening the Wittgenstein movie, or short extracts from other movies. Please visit the "Discussion" section of this website for further details. All welcome!

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 21 September -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Meg Sherwood will be speaking on "Philosophy and food". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Russoc guest lecture -- 6.30pm, Wednesday 22 September -- Buttery Room, Holme Building. Dr Daniel Whiting will be speaking on "Gerrymandering Brandom: Meaning and the Prospects of Reductionism". Daniel is a postgraduate student from Reading University, UK. Lovers and haters of Robert Brandom are invited to come and defend his honour or to aid in his destruction. Brandom has proposed a highly influential pragmatist account of linguistic meaning, according to which the meaning of an expression is determined by its inferential role in the normative practices we engage in. Brandom opposes �naturalistic� accounts of language, which try to reduce semantic notions such as meaning and its cognates to the terms available to natural science. Cost: Russoc members $3; non-members $6.

Centre for human aspects of science and technology -- 6.30pm, Thursday 23 September -- Eastern Avenue Auditorium, University of Sydney. The Templeton Lecture 2004 will be given by Professor Ian Lowe AO of Griffith University. It will be entitled �Values for sustainable futures�. Admission free!

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 24 September -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Politics in the pub -- 6pm-7.45pm, Friday 24 September -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. "Australia Today: Public Apathy versus Moral Voices". Panel includes cartoonist Bruce Petty and former diplomat Richard Broinowski. All welcome, including children. Please visit the website for further information.

Centre for Research on Social Inclusion -- Monday 27, Tuesday 28 September -- location to be announced. The centre�s second annual conference is on the theme of �Mobile Boundaries / Rigid Worlds : The Contemporary Paradox�. We live in a world of change and movement. People, money and things are in a constant state of flux. There is movement from place to place. Our identities are ever-changing. Nothing seems fixed. But despite the fluidity of things, the world order is marked by segregations and forms of exclusion, both new and old, global and local. Presenters will address this theme from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Please visit the website for registration information.

Exploring a dilemma: how should the media portray families in these complex and rapidly changing times? -- 10.30am to 4am, Wednesday 29 September to Friday 1 October -- Hawkesbury Campus, University of Western Sydney, Richmond. This is a pre-conference workshop for the "Power and responsibility" conference. Recently the producers of "Playschool", a television program for very young children, was criticised for portraying a lesbian couple and their child as a family. The presenters will facilitate a dialogue using a team learning system (TLS), with software that scaffolds knowledge creation and supports human-human interaction. Cost: $50. For registration and further information, please visit the website. For enquiries: 4736-0091 or [email protected].

10th Annual Australasian Philosophy Postgraduate Conference -- Wednesday 29 September to Friday 1 October -- Macquarie University. All philosophy postgraduate students and honours students are invited to attend, and also students of other disciplines with an interest in philosophy. For further information, please contact [email protected].

Power and responsibility: ethics in the 21st century -- Wednesday 29 September to Friday 1 October -- Hawkesbury Campus, University of Western Sydney, Richmond. The aim of the 2004 Conference of the Australian Association of Professional and Applied Ethics is to explore the interrelationship between power and responsibility, and the meaning and implications of this relationship for ethics. Some of the questions to be examined during the conference include: How can we conduct life as an ethical enterprise? What is the place of moral responsibility and ethical care in an era of pragmatism and utilitarianism? In what ways has power acted responsibly? How does power neglect responsibility to the "Other" that is at the heart of the ethical enterprise? What are the possibilities for enacting the ethical ideals of integrity, honesty, truth, justice, and goodness in daily life? What is the place of memory, recollection and history in creating an ethical life? What ethical resources does power use to engage with issues of human rights, indigenous relations, families and communities, social justice? What is the place of educational sites in framing the ethical agenda? What is the meaning of principled judgment in the 21st century? Cost: $50-$325 depending on membership, sessions, etc. For registration and further information, please visit the website. For enquiries: 4736-0091 or [email protected].

Blackheath Philosophy Forum -- 4pm, Saturday 2 October -- Blackheath Public School Hall, corner of Great Western Highway and Leichhardt Street, Blackheath. Goetz Richter will talk on "Music, Philosophy and Life". This forum will explore the three seemingly distinct phenomena. Music is frequently considered as a subject of aesthetic reflection, and philosophical engagement with music occurs usually within the realm of aesthetics. Some thinkers however (including Plato, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche) have put the three areas into much closer connection. What type of thinking underpins this proximity? Cost: $5. For further details, please visit the website.

Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture -- 9am-6pm, Saturday 2 to Sunday 3 October -- 99 Albert Road, Strathfield NSW 2135. The Catholic Institute of Sydney will hold its biennial conference with a general topic, "On the Good, Goods and the Good Life". Please visit the website for more information.

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 5 October -- Philosophy Seminar Room, room 720, building W6A. Professor Genevieve Lloyd will speak on "The Philosopher and the Princess: Descartes and Elizabeth on Passion and Providence". For further information, please visit the website. All welcome!

St James Ethics Centre -- 12.30pm, Tuesday 5 October -- meet at Martin Place. A circle of chairs is set up in the street and passers-by are invited to talk to a philosopher: the centre's Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm, Tuesday 5 October -- Sydney University, Wentworth Building, level 5 (look for the blue chairs and the white-coloured "philosophy in 90 minutes" books). Discussion on Carol Gilligan and the "ethic of care". All welcome! Please visit the discussion section of this website for more info.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 5 October -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Peter Whitfield will be launching his new book, "Zen Tails". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 6 October -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. Open forum this week. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Please visit the website for more information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 8 October -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: "The war on terror".

Russoc guest lecture and AGM -- 6pm, Friday 8 October -- Badham Room, Holme Building. Professor Moira Gatens will deliver a talk entitled "Human rights are women's rights: so what's the problem?". Dr Gatens is Sydney University�s acclaimed professor of social, political, and feminist philosophy -- known as much for her wicked wit as for her brilliance. Dr Gatens's talk will be followed by the Russoc AGM. Please stay for the AGM if you�re interested in helping run Russoc next year, or if you'd like to have a say in who does. We�re looking for committed folk who can handle the crazy glamour of Russoc life. Cost: Russoc members $3; non-members $6.

Jung Society -- 6:30pm, Saturday 9 October -- Blavatsky Lodge, 484 Kent Street, Sydney. �Visions of self, myths of relationships, patterns of mind�. Jungian analyst, Amanda Dowd, explores these notions and asks how they are interlinked. Cost: member $5 / non-member $20 / concession $15. Enquiries: 9290-1519. Please visit the website for further information. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Continental Philosophy Group -- 3pm, Sunday 10 October -- The Rustic Cafe, 560 Crown Street, Surry Hills, upstairs. Open forum, the tentative title to which is "Are Cultural Myths Honest Representations of Current Social Practices� And Can We Be Aware of Contemporary Mythology� Or Does it Remain a Cultural Blind Spot?!". Please visit the website for further information.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 11 October -- Philosophy Common Room in the Main Quad. Professor Dom Lopes will speak on "An Argument for Aesthetic Internalism". All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

University of Sydney, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 11 October -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Room 450, Level 4, Carslaw Building. Gary Edmond of the University of New South Wales will talk on "Knowledge Objectives: Karl Popper and the US Supreme Court". For further information, please contact Gail Stewart White at [email protected].

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 12 October -- Philosophy Seminar Room, room 720, building W6A. Dr Catharine Abell of Macquarie University will present a paper entitled "Pictorial Realism: What is it Really". For further information, please visit the website. All welcome!

2nd Tuesday Philosophy Forum -- 7pm, Tuesday 12 October -- Crows Nest Centre, corner of Ernest Street and Willoughby Road, Crows Nest. Paul Comrie-Thomson will examine a famous conversation about knowlege of the state of one'e heart. "I never loved you", says Hamlet to Ophelia. "My lord, you made me believe so". How would we go about ascertaining the truth of Hamlet's statement? He will then examine the much discussed phenomenon of "compassion". What is it? Where do we locate it? How do we know if we have it? Can animals love and have compassion? If not, what is peculiar to humans that gives them the capacity to have these emotions? Paul will also attempt an explanation of Wittgenstein's much-debated statement "If a lion could talk, we would not understand him". Cost: $15 adult; $10 concession. Please book with Marg Hamilton by e-mail, giving your phone number for confirmation, or phone Marg at 9953-6374 or 0418-457-877. For further details, please visit the website.

Gleebooks -- 7pm-8pm, Wednesday 13 October -- Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. �Is political advertising promoting democracy or destroying it?� In the Australian federal election millions are being spent on political advertising by all parties. Dr Sally Young, founder of the Political Advertising Archive, analyses the state of political advertising in Australia and proposes reforms that strengthen the roll of citizens in democracy. Cost: $6 members; $9 non-members. Bookings: 9660-2333 or visit the website.

International ethical investment association conference -- Thursday 14, Friday 15 October 2004 -- Melbourne. This conference, organised by the Ethical Investment Association, endeavours to set the agenda in Australia for the quantitative analysis of SRI issues, such as: How will the costing of carbon under the new European carbon trading scheme, the NSW Greenhouse Abatement Scheme and the Kyoto Protocol affect the profitability of Australian companies? How can investors avoid holding stock in companies that become subject to retrospective class actions or severe regulations based upon land contamination, tobacco, obesity, mobile phone radiation, asbestos, genetic engineering and other health issues? How do you measure project credit risk associated with social and environmental issues, particularly in rapidly emerging nations such as China? As the price of pollution credits, oil and water continue to rise, how do investors factor in the increased operating costs for companies who are heavy users of natural resources? If good management is a proxy for strong stock returns, which aspects of governance should analysts be evaluating? In the face of all this change, where are the opportunities for investors and how do you identify �companies of the future� who will provide solutions in an increasingly sensitive environment? Do your investments support companies that cause harm to society or the environment or contribute to poverty and unemployment, poor work conditions, community destabilisation, family breakdown, human rights abuse and war? What are the benefits of aligning your investments with the aspirations and values of your organisation? For further details, including how to register, please visit the website or telephone (02) 8224-0314.

Australian National University -- 10am-6pm, Friday 15 October. One-day workshop on "The contents of consciousness". Speakers include Frank Jackson, Adam Pautz and David Chalmers. All welcome! Please RSVP [email protected].

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 15 October -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. This week there will be a philosophical look at the election result with Ali Rizvi and Mark Hodges.

Blackheath Philosophy Forum -- 4pm, Saturday 16 October -- Blackheath Public School Hall, corner of Great Western Highway and Leichhardt Street, Blackheath. Rick Benitez of the University of Sydney will talk on, "Illusions and lies: Plato vs the artists". This talk will describe four ways in which Plato supposed that art is illusory: (1) through imitation, (2) through deception, (3) as a result of ignorance and (4) as a result of arrogance. It then explores more carefully the arguments about imitation and deception, exposing weaknesses in Plato's views about art, at least for criticism of contemporary artists. The talk concludes with speculation about the real target of Plato's criticism. Cost: $5. For further details, please visit the website.

University of Sydney, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 18 October -- Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 145 Macquarie Street. Sue Evans of Southern Cross University will talk on "Herbs and Herbalists: Mainstream or Marginal Medicine?". Please RSVP to Alyson Dalby at [email protected]. For further information, please contact Gail Stewart White at [email protected].

Macquarie Christian Studies Institute -- 1pm-2pm, Monday 18 October -- Macquarie University, Balaclava Road, building E7B, theatre 2. �How to be successful in business without losing your soul�. Greed is good? Enron? HIH? James Hardie? CEO salaries? Can you be good at business and be good? Is the bottom line the only profit that counts? Join Roger Corbett, CEO of Woolworths, as he seeks to answer the questions. Please visit the website for further information. Cost: free! Enquiries: 9850-6142. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

St James Ethics Centre -- 12.30pm, Tuesday 19 October -- meet at Martin Place. A circle of chairs is set up in the street and passers-by are invited to talk to a philosopher: the centre's Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff.

Russoc discussion group. Movie night! "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" will be screened. Please visit the discussion section of this website for further info.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 19 October -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Gerard Windsor will be launching his new book, "I Have Kissed Your Lips". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 22 October -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. This week Matt Price will anchor another philosophical take on music.

University of Sydney, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 25 October -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Room 450, Level 4, Carslaw Building. Amit Hagar will talk on "Chance and Time: Explaining Unobserved Phenomena". For further information, please contact Gail Stewart White at [email protected].

University of New South Wales -- 1pm-3pm, Tuesday 26 October -- room G55, Morven Brown Building. Dr Havi Carel of the Australian National University will speak on "Heidegger and Freud on Death". Dr Carel will use Heidegger's analysis of death and Freud's notion of the death drive in order to put forth a model of the relationship between life and death. All welcome! For further information, please contact Catherine Mills on 9385-2319 or [email protected].

Critical theory reading group -- 6pm, Wednesday 27 October -- room N408, Woolley Building, University of Sydney. Fortnightly discussions. Please contact [email protected] for more information. This week's reading: Spectres of Marx, by Jacques Derrida.

Gleebooks -- 6.30pm-8pm, Wednesday 27 October -- Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. �The historian's conscience�. How do historians choose their histories? What sort of emotional investment do they make in their subjects, and how do they deal with unpalatable discoveries? Join historians Stuart Macintyre, Iain McCalman and Penny Russell as they grapple with these questions. Cost: $6 members; $9 non-members. Bookings: 9660-2333 or visit the website.

Macquarie Christian Studies Institute -- 12.30pm-1.30pm, Thursday 28 October -- Level 10, Ace Building, 28 - 34 O'Connell Street, Sydney. Gordon Preece and Chris White will speak on "Coffee for the Corporate Conscience? -- The James Hardie Case". Cost: free! Please visit the website for further information.

State Library of New South Wales -- 5.30pm, Thursday 28 October -- Dixson Room, State Library of NSW, Macquarie Street, Sydney. �Right and wrong with Hugh Mackay�. Many Australians are reporting a loss of moral clarity and a declining sense of trust in institutions which used to have moral authority. Social researcher and author Hugh Mackay identifies some of the reasons why we might be losing confidence in our ability to make clear moral choices. Cost: $11 members; $16.50 non-members. Enquiries: 9273-1516 or visit the website.

WEA Adult Education Centre -- 12.30pm-2pm, Friday 29 October -- Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney. �Morality and foreign policy�. Can issues of morality ever become disentangled from foreign policy? Internationally acclaimed author Owen Harries offer his perspective on the challenges facing the international political community. Cost: free. Bookings: 9264-2781 or visit the website.

Mini-Workshop on Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics -- 2pm-5pm, Friday 29 October -- Science Faculty Meeting Room (room 450), Carslaw Building. All welcome! Tim Dalton will present a paper entitled "Entanglement, Interference, and Locality in Quantum Mechanics". Amit Hagar will present a paper entitled "A Philosopher Looks at Quantum Information Theory".

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 29 October -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: Paul Brosche presents "Teaching Philosophy, reflections on the year that was" with Damon Edgar and Gus Price.

Blackheath Philosophy Forum -- 4pm, Saturday 30 October -- Blackheath Public School Hall, corner of Great Western Highway and Leichhardt Street, Blackheath. Luke Russell of the University of Sydney will speak on "Where does morality come from?". Can evolution provide a credible explanation for the emergence of moral behaviour? Dr Russell will address this issue in light of recent debates in the philosophy of biology. Cost: $5. For further details, please visit the website.

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 2 November -- Philosophy Seminar Room, room 720, building W6A. Professor Igal Kvart of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will present a paper entitled "An Externalist Analysis of Knowledge". For further information, please visit the website. All welcome!

St James Ethics Centre -- 12.30pm, Tuesday 2 November -- meet at Martin Place. A circle of chairs is set up in the street and passers-by are invited to talk to a philosopher: the centre's Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff.

Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science -- 4pm-5.30pm, Tuesday 2 November -- Forster Room (C5A565), Macquarie University. Daniel Friedrich of the Australian National University will speak on "Autism and advanced theory of mind". Please visit the website for more information.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 2 November -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Dr Barry Spur of the University of Sydney will be speaking on, "The Crisis in English Studies". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 5.30pm-7.30pm, Wednesday 3 November -- Macleay Museum, University of Sydney. All welcome! This is the end-of-semester reception for the unit. This reception is an informal get-together of honours and postgraduate students, graduates, and all friends of HPS at the university and beyond. The Macleay Museum has been completely refurbished and all displays have changed. Afterwards, we will have dinner at the Forest Lodge Hotel in Glebe.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 3 November -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: issues related to pacifism. Is military force or war necessary? Is it sometimes right to kill noncombatants? Future meetings may deal more squarely with "Was the Iraq war just"? and "What kind of world order ought we have?". Please visit the website for more information.

Australian National University -- time of event: Thursday 4 to Friday 5 November -- deadline for abstracts: Friday 10 September. The School of Humanities will present a symposium on �Art and excess�. Please send abstracts (approximately 200 words, for a 20 minute paper) to [email protected]. Aristotle wanted to command excess; Rabelais, Blake, Lautr�amont, Rimbaud, Wagner and Bataille to revel in it; Bosch, Hogarth and Goya explored some of the excesses of human cruelty; Nietzsche longed to break through restraint to Dionysian expressiveness. Is excess the impulse behind the splendours of Baroque ornamentation, the phantasmagoric vision of the Gothic, the heroic aspirations of romanticism? Is it there in the lure of the sublime, in the glamour of decadence? Why is excess so often associated with violence and death -- is there an association between them via libertinism, as de Sade thought, or does excess actually reveal a culture characterized by the death of mercy? Has art by its very nature always been an �excess�? Or if not always an excess, has art now become so? Does excess reveal to us something about contemporary experience, or is it a seductive distraction standing between us and the �truth�? Cost: free admission! All welcome to attend! For any enquiries, please contact Frances Daly at (02) 6125-6516 or Jan Lloyd-Jones at (02) 6125-3376. Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 5 November -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: "Derrida RIP". Jo Faulkner anchors a discussion on the work of the recently deceased Jacques Derrida, with Jonothan Roffe, Carolyn d'Cruz and Paul Brosche.

Sydney Seminar for the Arts and Philosophy -- 2pm-4pm, Saturday 6 November -- Centenary Auditorium, Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Can Art Teach? Should Art Preach?". Join a panel discussion exploring the relationship between art, education and ideology. Speakers include Sharon Connolly (former CEO of Film Australia), artist Michiel Dolk, Michael Goldberg (Sub-dean, Sydney College of the Arts), and publisher/editor/lecturer Ivor Indyk of the University of Sydney. Cost: free! Please visit the website for more information or call 0403-960-803. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science -- 2pm-3.30pm, Monday 8 November -- Forster Room (C5A565), Macquarie University. Jesse Prinz of the University of North Carolina will speak on "Is morality a delusion?". Please visit the website for more information.

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 9 November -- Philosophy Seminar Room, room 720, building W6A. Jerome Dokic of the Institut Jean Nicod, Paris, will present a paper entitled "The Epistemic Conception of Imagination". For further information, please visit the website. All welcome!

Moral psychology: perspectives from philosophy, psychology and cognitive neuroscience -- Tuesday 9 to Wednesday 10 November 2004 -- Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Australian National University. Recent empirical research into the origins and nature of moral psychology has been pursued by evolutionary and cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists, who have produced an intriguing set of results about the processes involved in making normative judgements. However, researchers in the different disciplines do not always conceive of moral reasoning or moral psychology in the same way or agree on what would count as decisive evidence or argument in favour of a particular theory. Central themes will be the role played by emotions in cognition, and the question of whether moral cognition constitutes a distinct cognitive domain. For registration and enquiries please contact Jeanette Kennett at [email protected] or Philip Gerrans at [email protected]. Please visit the website for further information.

Critical theory reading group -- 6pm, Wednesday 10 November -- room N408, Woolley Building, University of Sydney. Fortnightly discussions. Please contact [email protected] for more information.

Blackheath Philosophy Forum -- 4pm, Saturday 13 November -- Blackheath Public School Hall, corner of Great Western Highway and Leichhardt Street, Blackheath. Roger Sandall will speak on "Idealizing the remote". The principle of nebulosity governs much higher human aspiration -- for example Heaven, Valhalla, and the Elysian Fields. A similar vagueness also permeates more mundane thinking about the socially and politically distant and unknown. This idealizing of the remote can be expressed (with apologies to Porfirio Diaz) in the formula "The further you are from Manhattan, the nearer you are to God". Cost: $5. For further details, please visit the website.

CG Jung Society of Sydney -- 6.30pm, Saturday 13 November -- Blavatsky Lodge, Level 2, 484 Kent Street, Sydney. Robert Bosnak will speak on "the psychoid". One of Jung's little explored additions to our speculation around body and soul is the notion of the psychoid, a realm that appears as psyche (hence the word "psychoid" which means "as-if-psyche"), but understood to be an ontological or original state preceding the body/psyche split. Jung used this notion in relation to synchronicity, moments when a meaningful pattern is detected among causally unrelated events. Is this psychoid realm similar to current understandings of embodiment and can it be made operational in psychotherapy, art and medicine? Cost: $30 for non-members, which includes a complementary supper. Please visit the website for more information or contact [email protected] or (02) 9290-1519.

Continental Philosophy Group -- 12.30pm-5.30pm, Sunday 14 November -- Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, corner of Collins and Norton Streets. Mini-conference, the main theme of which this year is "Rationality". Papers invited! For further information, please visit the website.

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 16 November -- Philosophy Seminar Room, room 720, building W6A. Dr Phil Staines of the University of New South Wales will present a paper entitled "Evaluating Bad Deductive Reasoning". For further information, please visit the website. All welcome!

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 16 November -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Naomi Smith (editor) and Gilbert Mane and Matthew Del Nevo (contributors) will be launching a book from New Frontier Press, "Education and the Ideal".Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 19 November -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: has democracy outlived its usefulness? Discussants include Robert Young and Matthew Sharpe.

Russoc -- Sunday 21, Monday 22 November -- Blue Mountains. The 2004 Russoc philosophy retreat. Bookings by Friday 24 September. Please click here for more information.

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 23 November -- Philosophy Seminar Room, room 720, building W6A. Professor Josefa Toribio of Indiana University will present a paper entitled "Where Self-Contained Models of Cognitive Vigilance go Wrong: The Importance of Popping Out". For further information, please visit the website. All welcome!

New Acropolis Australia -- Tuesday 23 November 2004 -- Bridge Business College Imperial Arcade, level 1, 83-85 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. "The philosophy of yoga". Cost: free. Please visit the website for more information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 26 November -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-4pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: Paul Brosche introduces Vampires, Death & Burial: The philosophy of horror and the horror of philosophy. Included in the discussion will be Anne Rice scholar Jonathon Roffe, anthropologist Peter Spratt and gothic horror buff Cameron Fraser.

Memory and embodied cognition -- Monday 29 November to Tuesday 30 November -- Tusculum Mansion, 3 Manning Street, Potts Point, Sydney. Will it ever to be possible again to study brain and culture simultaneously, to harness the increasing specialization of training and research skills productively in communal interdisciplinary enquiry? This workshop explores the interdisciplinary study of memory. We solicit papers on: (a) the foundations of embodied cognition and situated/ distributed cognition; (b) autobiographical memory, time, and agency; and (c) procedural memory, skill, and habit. Please visit the website for further information.

St James Ethics Centre -- 12.30pm, Tuesday 30 November -- meet at Martin Place. A circle of chairs is set up in the street and passers-by are invited to talk to a philosopher: the centre's Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 30 November -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Martin McAvoy and Matthew Del Nevo will be speaking on "Philosophy in Dialogue". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Philsoc -- 5pm, Tuesday 30 November -- seminar room E, Coombs Building, Australian National University. Ragnar Franc�n of Gotenburg University will present a paper entitled "Two Metaethical Relativisms and a Worry for One". Please visit the website for further information.

Centred worlds reading group -- 1.30pm, Wednesday 1 December -- seminar room E, Coombs Building, Australian National University. Topic: centered worlds content in language, self-locating assertion, and whether or not we should be content pluralists. The discussion will be loosely based on Andy Egan's paper, "Epistemic Modals, Relativism, and Assertion", which is available from: http://www.geocities.com/eganamit/papers.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 1 December -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: open forum. Please visit the website for more information.

Research School of Social Sciences -- 4pm, Thursday 2 December -- Coombs seminar room E, Australian National University. Lloyd Humberstone of Monash University will present a paper entitled "Modal Logic for Other-World Agnostics". Please visit the website for further information.

Steki Taverna -- 7pm, Thursday 2 December -- 2 O'Connell Street, Newtown. Eat, drink, be merry and philosophical. Join Edward Spence for a night of all things Epicurean as he presents a lecture on the philosophy of pleasure. Cost: $35, which includes a Greek banquet. Enquiries: (02) 9516-2191. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Memory, media, and social theory -- Thursday 2 December to Friday 3 December -- Macquarie University. Will it ever to be possible again to study brain and culture simultaneously, to harness the increasing specialization of training and research skills productively in communal interdisciplinary enquiry? This workshop explores the interdisciplinary study of memory. We solicit papers on: (a) technologies of memory, external memory, and material agency; (b) cultural or historical studies of memory and media; (c) social memory. Please visit the website for further information.

Centre for Time -- Saturday 4 December -- Darlington Centre, University of Sydney. In conjunction with visits to the Centre for Time by Guido Bacciagaluppi (Freiburg), Chris Fuchs (Bell Labs), and Gerard Milburn (Queensland, Centre for Quantum Computer Technology), the Centre for Time will conduct a summer workshop on Time-Asymmetry and Quantum Reality. For information about the venue, please visit http://www.usyd.edu.au/fmo/facilities/venues/1-darl/location.htm. Cost: probably $40 ($20 students) including lunch. For further information, please watch the website. For enquiries, please contact [email protected].

Logic summer school -- Monday 6 to Friday 17 December -- Australian National University, Canberra. The logic summer school is a two-week presentation of pure and applied logic. It consists of short courses on a range of topics taught by local and international experts. The level is advanced introductory: basic knowledge of logic is assumed, but prior exposure to the specific topics is not. The summer school is intended for students from third year undergraduate to PhD level who are considering specialising in a logic-related field, teachers of computer science, mathematics or philosophy, IT professionals, and anyone who finds the idea of two weeks of wall-to-wall logic enticing. Cost: $120 (students in full-time education); $1650 (other participants). Registrations after Thursday 28 October are subject to a 20% surcharge. Please register online.

University of New South Wales -- Monday 6, Tuesday 7 December -- Morven Brown Building. Epistemology workshop on "Aspects of Knowing". Topics will fall into these general categories: concepts and models of knowledge; the language of knowledge; analyses of knowledge; structures of knowledge; logic of knowledge; kinds of knowledge. More specific topics will include: the a priori; intuitions; scepticism; self-knowledge; knowledge as an operator; fallibilism; naturalism; and epistemic dependence. The are: John Bigelow (Monash); David Chalmers (Arizona/ANU); Adam Dickerson (Canberra); Jordi Fernandez (Macquarie); Adrian Heathcote (Sydney); Stephen Hetherington (UNSW); Frank Jackson (ANU); David Macarthur (Sydney); Tim Oakley (La Trobe). Everyone is welcome to attend. Papers will be short, leaving time for friendly discussion. For more details, and to register, please visit http://philosophy.arts.unsw.edu.au/events/workshop_epis.htm.

Philsoc -- 5pm, Wednesday 8 December -- seminar room E, Coombs Building, Australian National University. Aisling Crean of Bristol University will present a paper entitled "Are Dispositions Meinongian?". Please visit the website for further information.

Australian Society of Continental Philosophers and Centre for Research on Social Inclusion -- Wednesday 8 to Friday 10 December -- building X5B, Macquarie University. 2004 �Critique Today� conference at the centre. Contemporary continental philosophy has been criticised for having renounced its critical spirit, for having retreated from the political, or for having conformed itself to the demands of the global marketplace. What are the prospects for critical theory today? What obligation does philosophy have to question our historical actuality, or to invent new ways of thinking and acting? What is the future of the ethical turn in recent Continental thought? What relationships are possible today between philosophy, art, and technology? What are the tasks and challenges for contemporary aesthetic critique? Has contemporary philosophy become post-political, or are there new forms of philosophical critique emerging? Are gender, sexuality, and race/ethnicity the new sites of critical thinking? What role can philosophy play in confronting questions of justice, injustice, and the responsibility to others? What are the prospects for critical theory of society in an age of globalisation? Please visit the website for more information.

Research School of Social Sciences -- 4pm, Thursday 9 December -- Coombs seminar room E, Australian National University. Alan H�jek of RSSS will present a paper entitled "Two New Paradoxes in Decision Theory". Please visit the website for further information.

Aristotle reading group -- 4pm, Friday 10 December -- Milgate coffee room, AD Hope building, Australian National University. Topic: book 1 of the Nicomachean Ethics, available from http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.1.i.html. All welcome. For further information, please contact Katrina Hutchison at [email protected].

Continental Philosophy Group -- 3pm, Sunday 12 December -- Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, corner of Collins and Norton Streets. Michael von Brasch will present a critical reflection on the concept of democracy. Cost: $5, which includes free tea/coffee and afternoon tea. All welcome! Please visit the website for further information.

St James Ethics Centre -- 12.30pm, Tuesday 14 December -- meet at Martin Place. A circle of chairs is set up in the street and passers-by are invited to talk to a philosopher: the centre's Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff.

Philsoc -- 4pm, Tuesday 14 December -- seminar room E, Coombs Building, Australian National University. Ben Blumson of RSSS (ANU) will present a paper entitled "Direct Reference and Belief Attribution". Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 14 December -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Do philosophers celebrate Christmas? And if so, how? Join Dr Matt Del Nevo for a bit of seasonal tomfoolery as he poses this question in the last Philo Caf� evening of the year. Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Centre for Research on Social Inclusion -- 11am-1pm, Wednesday 15 December -- room 707, building W6A, Macquarie University. The purpose of the early career researchers morning is to provide information on: research career opportunities; internal postdoctoral schemes; support and mentorship in developing ARC postdoctoral fellowship applications; applying to become a formal research affiliate; and opportunities for employment as a research assistant. If your research falls within the centre's areas of interest, you are invited to attend. Please RSVP to Obelia Modjeska ([email protected] or (02) 9850-9171) by Wednesday 8 December. Please visit the website for further information.

Ethics reading group -- 4pm, Wednesday 15 December -- seminar room E, Coombs Building, Australian National University. Topic: chapter 3 of Gabriele Taylor's Pride, Shame and Guilt. For further information, contact Daniel Friedrich at [email protected].

The globalisation of nothing -- Wednesday 15 December -- Gallery Function Centre, level 6, Tower Building (building 1), University of Technology, Sydney. Author and sociologist George Ritzer will examine the way that globalisation has changed our lives. He will chart how the world is increasingly consuming goods and services that are "nothing". This is a free lecture, but bookings are essential. E-mail [email protected] or phone (02) 9514-3925.

Stoljar reading group -- 1.30pm, Thursday 16 December -- Australian National University. Last meeting of the group. The reading is available online here. Please contact David Chalmers at [email protected] for further information.

Research School of Social Sciences -- 4pm, Thursday 16 December -- Coombs seminar room A, Australian National University. Bernard Nickel of MIT will present a paper entitled "Semantics and Pragmatics of Why-Questions: What Matters, What Doesn't?". Please visit the website for further information.

Aristotle reading group -- 4pm, Friday 17 December -- Milgate Coffee Room, AD Hope Building, Australian National University. The reading this week will be book 1 of the Nicomachean Ethics and can be found online here. All welcome. Please contact Katrina Hutchison at [email protected] for further information.

ABC Radio National -- 8.30pm, Monday 20 December to Friday 24 December. "Socrates in the First Person". This five-part series, written by Edward Spence, School of Communication, Charles Sturt University and CAPPE, will be rebroadcast on ABC Radio National each evening from 8.30pm for five consecutive days. The program explores Socrates' philosophy on love, justice, morality, death, immortality, and knowledge. The program comprises five dramatic meditative monologues.

Shalom College -- 9am-4pm, Tuesday 21 December -- Eric Caspary Learning Centre, University of New South Wales, Kensington. "60 Years After Auschwitz". Far-Right political parties are enjoying an alarming renaissance in Europe. Whilst their numbers are small, their popularity is growing. Join a selection of respected international academics as they discuss the continuing menace of antisemitism in Europe and Australia. Cost: $80/$25. Bookings: 9663-0655. Please visit the website for more information. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Husserl reading group -- 2pm, Thursday 23 December -- Australian National University. Reading this week: 1905 lecture on internal time-consciousness. All welcome. For further information, please contact David Wall at [email protected].

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