The Russellian Society

Archives: Philosophy around Sydney: Second semester, 2005

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 1 July -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Blackheath Philosophy Forum -- 4pm, Saturday 2 July -- Blackheath Public School Hall, corner of Great Western Highway and Leichhardt Street, Blackheath. Dr Carolyn West will speak on "Illusions and delusions about happiness". Since the dawn of philosophy, happiness has been thought to be one of the cornerstones of the good life. A good society is supposed to be one which, amongst other things, makes it possible for its citizens to achieve this good. But what is happiness, why should we want it and how do we get it? Cost: $5. For further details, please visit the website.

Australasian Association for Philosophy -- date of event: Sunday 3 July to Friday 8 July 2005 -- deadline for submission of abstracts: Tuesday 31 May 2005 -- University of Sydney. The 2005 conference will incorporate the meetings of both Women in Philosophy and the Australasian Association of Logic. Offers of papers on any area of philosophy are welcomed. Please direct all general enquiries to [email protected]. Please visit the website for further information.

University of New South Wales -- 1pm-3pm, Tuesday 5 July -- philosophy seminar room, Morven Brown Building, room G55. Topic to be announced. All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 6 July -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: Jessica Reid will speak on "Aiming for happiness". Please visit the website for more information.

Russoc discussion group -- 4.15pm, Thursday 7 July -- Level 4, Wentworth Building, University of Sydney. Discussion of first part of Peter Singer's Ethics, on the origin of ethics. All welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 8 July -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

2005 John Anderson conference -- Saturday 9 July -- philosophy lecture room, Main Quad, Sydney University. For more information contact Marie Henderson on 0416-141-453. The conference will open with Professor David Armstrong launching the publication of Anderson's 1944 lectures on Samuel Alexander. This will be followed by a discussion of the lectures by Dr Mark Weblin, who will examine Anderson's criticisms of Alexander's theory of space-time and discuss some of the reasons behind Anderson's critical position on Einstein's relativity theory. The afternoon session will focus on Anderson's distinctive ethical theory.

Continental Philosophy Group -- 3pm-6pm, Sunday 10 July -- Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, corner of Collins and Norton Streets. Lindsay Mell will conduct a critique of Alain de Botton�s book Status Anxiety. All welcome! Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 12 July -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Martin McAvoy and Matt Del Nevo will have a philosophical 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.

14th International Society for Chinese Philosophy Conference -- Wednesday 13 to Tuesday 19 July 2005 -- University of New South Wales. Theme: Chinese philosophy and human development in the 21st century. Panel and workshop discussions will focus on interdisciplinary debate in the following areas: values, health and ethics including conceptions of self, society and well-being; politics, international relations and globalisation issues; trade, economy, business and human resource development; culture, art and religion; the natural environment and natural resources, built environments, and the impact of development on the natural environment; scientific and technological developments with particular emphasis on emergent ethical challenges. To find out more about the conference, submit an abstract or register your interest, please visit the conference website or contact the ISCP conference secretariat at [email protected].

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 15 July -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Blackheath Philosophy Forum -- 4pm, Saturday 16 July -- Blackheath Public School Hall, corner of Great Western Highway and Leichhardt Street, Blackheath. Peter Coleman will speak on "The future of censorship". Peter Coleman wrote his book on censorship some 45 years ago and believes much has happened to justify revision. In particular he will consider Eve's argument in the Bible and Milton�s in the Areopagitica that there is no such thing as a cloistered virtue, that good defines itself in conflict with evil, and that censorship, by the state or by political correctness, must be demoralising. Cost: $5. For further details, please visit the website.

Psy Broadcasting Corporation -- Monday 18 July to Thursday 28 July -- online. "Under what circumstances (cultural and psychological) does the religious fundamentalist's attachment to [the idea of] God lead to violence?" Position paper by James Jones. Discussant: Dan Hill. The 2005 symposium series focuses on the question: Why do religious beliefs so often generate political violence? Each session will feature a presentation, followed by an online discussion. Please visit the website for more information or contact Orion Anderson at [email protected].

A social theory of the business enterprise -- 5.30pm-7pm, Tuesday 19 July -- Minter Ellison Conference Room, Sydney Law School, 173 Phillip Street, Sydney. Corporate social responsibility has become a big issue in the wake of the Enron collapse. Professor Orts, University of Pennsylvania, argues that a broader conception of the business enterprise as a social institution is required to accommodate political and social purposes, in addition to purely economic objectives. Cost: $70/$35. Bookings: 9351-0238, or at the website. Information about this event was found at Sydney Talks.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 20 July -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: Pedro Nunes will speak on "What is love?". Please visit the website for more information.

Genetics or How to live to be one hundred -- 12pm-1:30pm, Thursday 21 July -- Lady Mayoress' Rooms, Sydney Town Hall, George Street, Sydney. Newspapers are full of articles about the impact of genetics on our present and future. But for many of us, it can be a dauntingly complex subject. Help is at hand. Join scientist Kath Olive as she offers a comprehensive overview of genetics and the ethics of genetic engineering. Cost: $20. Bookings: 9265-9486. Information about this event was found at Sydney Talks.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-6.30pm, Thursday 21 July -- bistro section at the back of The Royal pub, corner of Abercrombie Street and Codrington Street, Chippendale (close to Sydney University). Discussion of third part of Peter Singer's Ethics, on reason and ethics. Can reason alone tell you what's good or evil? Are there moral facts? How do you get from reasoning to a motivated ethical action? Is all ethical talk nonsensical? All welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 22 July -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

CHIMP -- 5.30pm, Saturday 23 July -- Tusculum Mansion, 3 Manning St, Potts Point. Professor Sir Anthony J Leggett will give an address to CHIMP members on time symmetry and measurement in quantum mechanics. RSVP to [email protected].

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 25 July -- New Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Richard Swinburne (Oriel College, Oxford) will speak on "What makes me me? A defense of substance dualism". All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr David Braddon-Mitchell at [email protected].

CHIMP -- 6pm, Monday 25 July -- MacLaurin Hall, University of Sydney. Professor A. J. Leggett (Nobel Laureate in Physics, 2003) will be speaking on "Does the everyday world really obey quantum mechanics?". This lecture is free, and open to everyone, but booking is essential. Please RSVP to Rebecca Stroud by Thursday 21 July at [email protected]. Please visit the website for further information.

University of New South Wales -- 1.15pm-3pm, Tuesday 26 July -- philosophy seminar room, Morven Brown Building, room G55. Adrian Mackenzie (University of Lancaster) will speak on "The strange meshing of impersonal and personal forces in technological action". All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

Sydney Shove -- 6.30pm, Tuesday 26 July -- Humanist House, 10 Shepherd Street, Chippendale. Discussion group.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 26 July -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Michael Robertson will speak on "The warrior myth?". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Parramatta philosophy group -- 8pm, Wednesday 27 July -- Mars Hills Caf�, 331 Church Street, Parramatta. This month the group will discuss Zizek's On Belief. For more information, please contact Adrian Emilsen at [email protected].

Jack Smart lecture -- Thursday 28 July 2005 -- Australian National University. Timothy Williamson, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the Oxford, will deliver the seventh annual lecture on a topic to be announced. Please visit the website for further information.

Lecture by Iris Marion Young -- 6pm-7.30pm, Thursday 28 July 22 -- Woolley Lecture Theatre N395, Woolley Building A20, University of Sydney. Professor Iris Marion Young (University of Chicago) will speak on "Responsibility and historic injustice". She will argue that taking responsibility for current structural injustice requires considering historic injustice in two respects. First, it is important to understand the continuities of present structural injustice with past injustices. Secondly, how politics plays out in the present has much to do with how different social sectors narrate the past of the society. Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 29 July -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: philosophy and tarot.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 29 July -- Western Tower Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Professor Carolyn J Dean (Brown University) will speak on "Tolerance, discipline, and challenges of writing the history of sexuality". Many historians of Western sexuality have looked to poststructuralist notions of the instability and fluidity of identity in order to contest "fixed" constructions of sexual identity. There is no stable or fixed "nature": there are only norms within which bodies are framed or inscribed. Historians of fin-de-siecle Europe have demonstrated how homosexual identities always exceed and refashion the categories that define them, and have argued that arguments for tolerance of homosexuals tend problematically to bind gay selfhood to normalizing concepts of sexuality and gender. This paper explores the question of gay identity by reference to discourses of tolerance. In order to do so, it examines recent historiography of the fin-de-siecle and interwar period in order to discuss the problems posed by an uncritical equation of fluidity with subversion and self-making and thus of Foucauldian "critique" with all critique. For more information, please visit the website.

Simone Weil Lectures on Human Value -- 5.30pm (for 6pm start), Monday 1 August -- Metcalfe Auditorium, Macquarie Street Wing, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. Professor Susan Neiman will be speaking on "Moral clarity". George W. Bush has repeatedly insisted that people long for moral clarity. What his administration has offered, however, is moral simplicity. This lecture explores how stories and examples - rather than abstract arguments -- can be used to show that moral action is possible. A reinvigorated Enlightenment can challenge both fundamentalism and nihilism. Cost: $11. Bookings: 9273-1770 or [email protected]. For further information call: (02) 9273-1770 or (03) 9953-3160 or e-mail [email protected].

The molecular deconstruction of sex -- 6pm-8pm, Monday 1 August -- Macquarie Room, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 145 Macquarie Street, Sydney. Dr Vernon Rosario (Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California at Los Angeles) will deliver a talk entitled "From Hermaphrodites to SOX9: The Molecular Deconstruction of Sex". The social constructivist theories of sex, gender, and sexuality increasingly get assaulted in the media by biologically determinist models. Recent molecular genetics research on sex determination, however, begins to unravel and complicate biological models of sex that have been dominant for a century. The molecular biology of sex promises to destabilize our notions of sex in ways more profound then radical feminism or queer theory ever imagined. Cost: $5. Bookings: 9256-5413, or at the website.

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 2 August -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Professor Robert R Williams (University of Illinois, Chicago) will speak on "Bound by recognition?". For further information, please contact Dr Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or visit the website.

Centre for Independent Studies -- 5.30pm (for 6pm start), Tuesday 2 August -- AAP Centre Theatrette, 259 George Street (corner of Jamison Street), Sydney. The Right Honourable Frank Field MP (UK) will speak on "The ethic of respect". Concern about incivility, boorish behaviour and the collapse of moral standards is widely regarded as part of a "right-wing' political agenda, but the left used to be concerned about these things too. Traditionally the labour movement emphasised the importance of personal responsibility and the self-improvement of individuals in building strong communities. Cost: $15/$5. RSVP is essential: call 9438-4377, e-mail [email protected], or register at the website.

Lecture by Nancy Fraser -- 7pm (for 7.30pm start), Tuesday 2 August -- general lecture theatre 1, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Professor Nancy Fraser (New School) will speak on "Reframing justice in a globalising world". Tickets for this lecture are available from the Nicholson Museum from 6pm on the night.

Postgraduate seminar with Professor Nancy Fraser -- Wednesday 3 August. Postgraduate scholars from all NSW universities are invited to apply to participate. For further information and an application form, please email: [email protected] or [email protected].

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 3 August -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 3 August -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: John August will speak on "The Ritzian alternative to the theory of relativity". There will be an outline of Einstein's theory, and how it first arose from problems with Maxwell's theory and early attempts to explain the propagtion of light together with electric and magnetic fields. It will be argued Ritzian theory provides alternative explanations for mass increase, time dilation and other phenomena. Please visit the website for more information.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 3 August -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. "Antonio Negri: fundamental insights into neo-liberalism". Professor Robert Connell will explore Negri's key ideas about the modern state, the dynamics of globalisation, resistance, labour creativity and the methodology behind social theory. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344. The details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Intelligent Systems Group Seminar Series -- 1pm, Thursday 4 August -- room 131, building E6A, Macquarie University. Professor David Makinson (King's College, London) will talk on "Friendliness for Logicians". He will define and examine a notion of logical friendliness, which is a natural broadening of the familiar notion of classical consequence. It is formulated first in its simplest form, and then in a syntax-independent version, which we call sympathy. Although born of idle curiosity, the concept makes contact with a surprising range of notions and operations familiar in the history of logic from 1847 to the present. All welcome.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-6.30pm, Thursday 4 August -- upstairs bistro section at the back of The Royal pub, corner of Abercrombie Street and Codrington Street, Chippendale (close to Sydney University). Discussion of fourth part of Peter Singer's Ethics, on ultimate good. What is the ultimate good for humans? Mere absence of suffering? The development of certain potentials? And what is "happiness", and is there anything besides happiness that could be the ultimate good? All welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence -- 5.30pm, Thursday 4 August -- Banco Court of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Queens Square, Sydney. The annual Julius Stone Address, to be delivered by Professor Ratna Kapur, Director of the Center for Feminist Legal Research, New Delhi. Professor Kapur will speak on "The dark side of human rights". For more information, please visit the website.

Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence -- Friday 5 August. Conference on the theme "Sex, gender and rights". Speakers include Professors Hilary Charlesworth, Margaret Davies, Reg Graycar and Ratna Kapur and Dr Adrienne Stone. Cost: $80 ($25 concession). Please visit the website for registration and further information or contact Daniel Brass at [email protected].

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 5 August -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Philosophy dialectics -- 2pm, Saturday 6 August -- Botanical Gardens. Philosophy is discussed through several one-on-one discussions. These discussions are run every Saturday after a Philorum meeting. For more information, please contact John Bentley at [email protected].

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 8 August -- New Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Michael Bruno (University of Arizona) will present a paper entitled "Divorcing content and attitude: new directions in moral psychology". All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 9 August -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Dr Mianna Lotz (Macquarie University) will speak on "Feinberg, Mills, and the child's right to an open future". For further information, please contact Dr Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or visit the website.

University of New South Wales -- 1.15pm-3pm, Tuesday 9 August -- philosophy seminar room, Morven Brown Building, room G55. Paul Redding (University of Sydney) will speak on "Hegel and the the Law of Non-Contradiction". All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

2nd Tuesday Philosophy Forum -- 7pm, Tuesday 9 August -- Crows Nest Centre, corner of Ernest Street and Willoughby Road, Crows Nest. Dr Peter Menzies, Head of the School of Philosophy at Macquarie University, will talk on "Mental Causation". 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.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 9 August -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Meg Sherwood will deliver a talk entitled "A serious look at humour". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 10 August -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Aquinas Academy -- 6pm-8pm, Wednesday 10 August -- The Crypt, St Patrick's Church, Grosvenor Street, The Rocks. "Thomas Aquinas and theology as conversation". Dr Tom Ryan will argue that Thomas Aquinas's approach to theology as a critical conversation seeks and anticipates our democratic sensibility as well provides a progressive relationship between Christian faith and reason. Cost: $10 (coffee and tea provided). For more information, please visit the website or call 9247-4651. The details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 10 August -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. Professor Paul Patton will speak on Deleuze. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 11 August -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Lawrence McNamara (Macquarie University) will speak on "Judging historians, judging history". For information please visit the website.

Russoc guest lecture -- 7:15pm, Thursday 11 August -- Holme Common Room, Holme Building, Science Road, University of Sydney. Dr Michael Robertson will speak on "Psychiatry and Human Rights -- Past, Present and Future". This talk will examine the abuses of psychiatry in the Third Reich, the USSR and present day China. It will attempt to identify common themes in these three instances as a base for discussing the relationship between psychiatry and society in post-industrial, and post-9/11, Australia. There will be a consideration of the issue of sexual abuse of patients by health professionals. There will also be a consideration of the Mental Health Act (NSW) and the code of ethics adopted by the Australasian College of Psychiatrists. The question will be posed to the audience: "Do you think we have done enough?".

Macquarie University -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 12 August -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Postgraduate philosophy seminar. Suzy Bliss will speak on "Determination and Mental Causation". Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 12 August -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Continental Philosophy Group -- 3pm-6pm, Sunday 14 August -- Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, corner of Collins and Norton Streets. There will be an open forum on "Big Business versus Politics? -- How are Changes in Business Changing the Nature of the Political Process in Australia� and Elsewhere?". All welcome! Please visit the website for further information.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 15 August -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Penelope Deutscher (Northwestern University) will present a paper on entitled "Ethical conversion and the virtual in Simone de Beauvoir". All welcome! For further information, please contact Professor Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 17 August -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 5pm-7pm, Wednesday 17 August -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Carslaw 275, University of Sydney. Professor Sheila Jasanoff (John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) will speak on "Democracies of DNA: The Comparative Politics of Bioethics". For further information, please contact 9351-4226, or [email protected], or visit the website.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 17 August -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: John Bentley and William Spaul will speak on the limits of free speech. Please visit the website for more information.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 17 August -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. Professor Ghassan Hage will speak on Pierre Bourdieu. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 18 August -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Dr Marnie Hughes-Warrington (Macquarie University) will speak on "'Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead': disclaiming history in historical films?". For information please visit the website.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-6.30pm, Thursday 18 August -- upstairs bistro section at the back of The Royal pub, corner of Abercrombie Street and Codrington Street, Chippendale (close to Sydney University). Discussion of final part of Peter Singer's Ethics, on deciding what is right. Consequentialism, varieties of utilitarianism, deontology, human rights, social contract ethics. All welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

New Acropolis Australia -- 6.30pm, Thursday 18 August -- Bridge Business College Imperial Arcade, level 1, 83-85 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. Guner Orucu will speak on "Paralysing fear": how does fear affect our lives and decisions; fear of change, fear of knowing, fear of challenge; battle with fear. Cost: free. Please visit the website for more information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 19 August -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Philosophy dialectics -- 2pm, Saturday 20 August -- Botanical Gardens. Philosophy is discussed through several one-on-one discussions. These discussions are run every Saturday after a Philorum meeting. For more information, please contact John Bentley at [email protected].

Gleebooks -- 7pm, Monday 22 August -- Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre, corner of City Road and Cleveland Street, Chippendale. "The collapse of globalism: and the reinvention of the world". John Ralston Saul will argue that the all-powerful god of globalism is dead, and in its place is the idea of national power and the return of choice for citizens and countries. Instead of surrendering or sharing sovereignty, governments and citizens are reasserting their national interests. Cost: $15/$12. Bookings: 9351-7940. Please visit the website for more information. The details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

University of New South Wales -- 1.15pm-3pm, Tuesday 23 August -- philosophy seminar room, Morven Brown Building, room 211. John Armstrong (University of Melbourne) will speak on "The business of thinking -- civilization and the mission of philosophy". All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

The media: its influence on popular culture and collective thinking -- 7:30am-8:45am, Tuesday 23 August -- Grand Ballroom, Sofitel Wentworth Hotel, Phillip Street, Sydney. Dr Catharine Lumby (Media and Communication Department, University of Sydney) recently coordinated a research project for the National Rugby League exploring players' attitudes and behaviours towards women. She will discuss how the media shapes our popular culture and collective thinking. Cost $55/$45 (Usyd graduates). For more information, please visit the website or call 9036-9222. The details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 23 August -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Gregory McCormick will speak on "Needs, desires, recognition: some thoughts on moral narcissism". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Australian British Chamber of Commerce -- 12pm-2pm, Wednesday 24 August -- Shangri-La Hotel, 176 Cumberland Street, The Rocks, Sydney. "The networked society: identity, surveillance and privacy". Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield will discuss privacy and the individual as technology catapults us forward into a new era. Assistant Commissioner Jonathon Bamford will provide insight into how technology issues are pushing the boundaries of information privacy law. Cost: $110. For more information, please visit the website or call 9247-6271. The details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 24 August -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 24 August -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. Dr Elizabeth Wilson will speak on Freud. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 25 August -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Professor Nick Mansfield (Macquarie University) will speak on "Derrida and the law of the home: economy, gift, hospitality". For information please visit the website.

The Salon -- 7:30pm-11pm, Thursday 25 August -- Frequency Lab/Knot Gallery, 342 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills. "Is civil liberty a liability?". The Salon is a monthly arts and debate night, bringing a diverse crowd together with a panel of three guest professionals. Before the debate, projections are run of new works by established and emerging poets and artists. Cost: $8. For more information, please call 0405-343-082. The details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 26 August -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 29 August -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Professor Guenter Zoeller (University of Munich) will present a paper entitled "Of empty thoughts and blind intuitions: Kant's answer to McDowell". All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 29 August -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Carslaw 450, University of Sydney. Alan Chalmers (Flinders University) will speak on "The Significance of Perrin�s Experiments on Brownian Motion". For further information, please contact 9351-4226, or [email protected], or visit the website.

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 30 August -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Professor Uriah Kriegel (University of Arizona) will speak on "No representation without self-representation". For further information, please contact Dr Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or visit the website.

University of New South Wales -- 1.15pm-3pm, Tuesday 30 August -- room 211, Morven Brown Building. Penelope Deutscher (Northwestern University) will speak on "'Women and so on': rogues, feminism and Derrida's auto-immunity". All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 31 August -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 31 August -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. "Karl Marx". Dr John Buchanan (Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training) addresses what remains relevant and exciting about Marx's thought today. In addition it will be argued that it is important to break with a number of key features of this thought for the purposes of both analytical rigour and relevance. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344. The details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 1 September -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Professor Richie Howitt (Macquarie University) will speak on "Scales of co-existence: tackling the tension between legal and cultural landscapes in post-Mabo Australia". For information please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 1 September -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. This week: "Wings of desire"; issue: dualism. For further information, please visit the website.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-6.30pm, Thursday 1 September -- upstairs bistro section at the back of The Royal pub, corner of Abercrombie Street and Codrington Street, Chippendale (close to Sydney University). The first part of two discussions on Alan Chalmers' book, "What is this thing called science?". Theories and facts, observation, experiment, induction, falsificationism. Come along for a think about scientific methodology. All welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

What is the new rhetoric? -- Friday 2 to Saturday 3 September 2005 -- Darlington Conference Centre, University of Sydney. The rediscovery of rhetoric in recent decades has had a significant impact upon communication practices, language study and the scholarship of writing. This first Australian conference on the New Rhetoric will bring together Australian and international experts to explore the benefits of revisiting a classical art. The conference will feature speeches by Professor Andrea Lunsford (Stanford University) and Professor George Pullman (Georgia State University). Please visit the website for registration and further information.

Macquarie University -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 2 September -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Postgraduate philosophy seminar. Monte Pemberton will speak on "What's wrong with collective memory?". Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 2 September -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 5 September -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Professor Aviezer Tucker (Long Island University and ANU) will present a paper entitled "Our knowledge of the past, or how to prove that your students have plagiarized". All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 6 September -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Professor Stephen Crain (Macquarie University) will speak on "Whatever became of �deep structure�". For further information, please contact Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or 9850-9935, or Clara Wong at [email protected] or 9850-8837, or visit the website.

University of New South Wales -- 1.15pm-3pm, Tuesday 6 September -- philosophy seminar room, G55, Morven Brown Building. Aviezer Tucker (Long Island University and ANU) will speak on "Our knowledge of the past, or, how to prove that your students have plagiarized". All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

Russoc guest lecture -- 7pm, Tuesday 6 September -- Holme Reading Room, Holme Building, Science Road, University of Sydney. Dr John Grumley will speak on "Agnes Heller and the question of humanism". Come along and enjoy the usual abundance of food, drink and philosophy! All welcome! Cost: $3 (USU and Russoc), $6 (USU and non-Russoc), $7 (non-USU and Russoc), $10 (non-USU and non-Russoc). Membership is $5 (all welcome to join).

Philosophy cafe -- 6pm (for 7.30pm start), Tuesday 6 September -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Geraldine Doogue will interview Paul Collins about his book God�s New Man. Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 7 September -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 7 September -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: an open forum on whether the use of force is ever justified. Please visit the website for more information.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 7 September -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. Professor Stephen Gaukroger will speak on Descartes. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 8 September -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Patricia Lane will speak on "Social science opinion, legal proof and the question of expertise: 'Educated Guesswork' and 'Unsupported Speculation' in native title law and practice". For information please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 8 September -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. This week: "Return of Martin Guerre"; issues: perception and experience. For further information, please visit the website.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 9 September -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Philosophy dialectics -- 2pm, Saturday 10 September -- Botanical Gardens. Philosophy is discussed through several one-on-one discussions. These discussions are run every Saturday after a Philorum meeting. For more information, please contact John Bentley at [email protected].

School of Philosophy -- 9:30am-12:00pm, Sunday 11 September -- School of Philosophy, level 1, 142-144 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. "Imperfection and imcompleteness". This talk will argue that it is the imperfection and incompleteness in a great work of art that provides an opportunity for the spectator or listener to adapt its message to his or her situation and life. The art then becomes dynamic, vital and engaging. The presenter, Demetrius Condos, is a registered architect who studied architectural symbolism under Peter Kollar and Adrian Snodgrass. Cost: $5. For further information, please visit the website or call 9489-0902. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Continental Philosophy Group -- 3pm-6pm, Sunday 11 September -- Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, corner of Collins and Norton Streets. Topic to be announced. All welcome! Please visit the website for further information.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 12 September -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Dr Fiona Jenkins (ANU) entitled "The abject foetus: figuring grievable life in the abortion debate". All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 13 September -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Professor Rod Girle (University of Auckland) will speak on "New approaches to teaching critical thinking". For further information, please contact Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or 9850-9935, or Clara Wong at [email protected] or 9850-8837, or visit the website.

2nd Tuesday Philosophy Forum -- 7pm, Tuesday 13 September -- Crows Nest Centre, corner of Ernest Street and Willoughby Road, Crows Nest. Dr Mark Weblin will speak on the Gnostic origins of the Tarot cards. 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.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 14 September -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Aquinas Academy -- 6pm-8pm, Wednesday 14 September -- The Crypt, St Patrick's Church, Grosvenor Street, The Rocks. "Democracy and the church?!". Andrew Murray, Catholic Institute Sydney, will use distinctions from Aristotle's Politics to explore what people might be seeking or avoiding when they speak of democracy in the Catholic church. Cost: $10 (coffee and tea provided). For more information, please visit the website or call 9247-4651. The details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 14 September -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. Professor Huw Price will speak on Einstein. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 15 September -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Dr Katherine Biber (Macquarie University) will speak on "Photographing innocents: judgment in art, law and deviancy". For information please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 15 September -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. This week: "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind"; issues: memory, self and amnesia. For further information, please visit the website.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-6.30pm, Thursday 15 September -- glassed in area, food court, level 1, Manning Building, University of Sydney. "Philosophy in a time of terror". A discussion of interviews with Habermas and Derrida that were conducted after 11 September 2001. All welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

Macquarie University -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 16 September -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Postgraduate philosophy seminar. Jacqui Poltera will speak on "Stephen Fry: A case in defence of practical identity". Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 16 September -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: Jo Faulkner will talk to Philipa Rothfield on "The world according to Jean-Paul Sartre".

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 19 September -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Dr Jay Shaw (Victoria University of Wellington) will present a paper entitled "Knowledge, belief and doubt: some contemporary problems and their solutions from the Nyaya Perspective". All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 19 September -- Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 145 Macquarie Street, Sydney. Ian Kerridge (University of Sydney) will speak on "Altruism or Reckless Curiosity: A Brief History of Self-Experimentation in Medicine". He asks what such stories may reveal about the ethics of research and the value that we attach to altruism and to the lives of research participants. Please RSVP by the Wednesday before to Alyson Dalby at [email protected]. For further information, please contact 9351-4226, or [email protected], or visit the website.

University of New South Wales -- 1.15pm-3pm, Tuesday 20 September -- philosophy seminar room, Morven Brown Building, room G55. Tim Rayner (Univeristy of Sydney) will speak on "Minor democracy and globalization from below". This paper will inquire into the constitutive dimensions of social movements. The aim is to develop a post-Foucaultian model of transnational social movements understood as vehicles of "minor" (extra-institutional) democracy and transnational "problematization". All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 20 September -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Peter Bowden will deliver a talk entitled "In defence of JS Mill and utilitarianism". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 21 September -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 21 September -- 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 institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 21 September -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. Dr Bronwyn Winter will speak on de Beauvoir. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 22 September -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. For further information, please visit the website.

New Acropolis Australia -- 6.30pm, Thursday 22 September -- Bridge Business College Imperial Arcade, level 1, 83-85 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. Guner Orucu will speak on "The world of dreams": what is the nature of dreams; why do we dream; how can we use dreams to know ourselves. Cost: free. Please visit the website for more information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 23 September -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Philosophy dialectics -- 2pm, Saturday 24 September -- Botanical Gardens. Philosophy is discussed through several one-on-one discussions. These discussions are run every Saturday after a Philorum meeting. For more information, please contact John Bentley at [email protected].

Australian Health Policy Institute -- 5:30pm-7pm, Monday 26 September -- auditorium, Kerry Packer Education Centre, RPA Hospital, Missenden Road, Camperdown. "The market for human organs: the anatomy of regulatory failure". Join Dr Stephen Jan, Dr Paul Snelling, and Professor Ian Kerridge for a discussion about the ethics and regulatory issues associated with the trade in human organs. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-2818. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

11th Australasian Postgraduate Philosophy Conference -- Wednesday 28 September to Friday 30 September -- University of Melbourne Graduate Centre. Papers on all areas of philosophy and related disciplines are invited from both postgraduate and Honours students. There is no central theme, although we anticipate at least one stream will be dedicated to applied philosophy. Papers should be about 20-25 minutes long, with about the same time for discussion. Expressions of interest requested by 30 July. Abstracts required by 30 August. Registration is free. Submit expressions of interest, abstracts, requests for billets and any other queries to Conference Organisers: Cameron Fraser at [email protected] or Clare McCausland at [email protected]. Please visit the website for further information.

Sydney Jewish Museum -- 11:30am-12:30pm, Wednesday 28 September -- John Saunders Auditorium, Sydney Jewish Museum, 148 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst. "Holocaust commemoration". Avril Alba will explore such questions as: can any attempt at representation fully encapsulate the horror of the Holocaust? and how does each new expression of "evil" both enlarge and obfuscate our understanding of this momentous historical event? Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9360-7999. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 28 September -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 29 September -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. For further information, please visit the website.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-7pm, Thursday 29 September -- glassed area, food court, level 1, Manning Building, University of Sydney. "De Tocqueville and democracy". A discussion of Democracy in America and The old regime and the French Revolution -- the nature, pros and cons of American democracy, according to Alexis de Tocqueville. No prerequisite reading and all welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 30 September -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 4 October -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Professor Uriah Kriegel (University of Arizona) will speak on "No representation without self-representation". For further information, please contact Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or 9850-9935, or Clara Wong at [email protected] or 9850-8837, or visit the website.

University of New South Wales -- 1.15pm-3pm, Tuesday 4 October -- philosophy seminar room, G55, Morven Brown Building. Michaelis Michael (University of New South Wales) will speak on "Can Aristotle dance around the Cartesian Circle?". All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 4 October -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Derek Maitland will deliver a talk entitled "Where have all the values gone?". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 5 October -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Centre for Time -- 4:15pm-5:45pm, Wednesday 5 October -- Philosophy Common Room (Main Quad S413), University of Sydney. Luca Moretti (University of Konstanz) will speak on "A thick realist consequence of Wright's minimalism". Please visit the website for further information.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 5 October -- 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.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 6 October -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Dr Nicole Graham (Macquarie University) will speak on "Customising law: the genre of authority". For information please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 6 October -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. This week: "Suture" (issue: being-in-the-world). All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. For further information, please visit the website.

CHIMP -- 5pm-6.30pm, Thursday 6 October -- History Room, Main Quad S223 (SE corner), University of Sydney. Dr Armond Duwell (University of Konstanz) will speak on "Is quantum theory all about quantum information?". Please visit the website above for further information. For details on the CHIMP mailing list, please click here.

Macquarie University -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 7 October -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Postgraduate philosophy seminar. Wilson Cooper will speak on a topic to be announced. Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 7 October -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: "Identity cards: is it about terror, or privacy?" -- Jo Faulkner interviews Rob Sparrow, Peter Chen and Jessica Wolfendale.

Philosophy dialectics -- 2pm, Saturday 8 October -- Botanical Gardens. Philosophy is discussed through several one-on-one discussions. These discussions are run every Saturday after a Philorum meeting. For more information, please contact John Bentley at [email protected].

Continental Philosophy Group -- 3pm-6pm, Sunday 9 October -- Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, corner of Collins and Norton Streets. Open forum on "Employment and identity: what is the real nature of work? And should we go fast� or go slow�?". Cost: $5. All welcome! Please visit the website for further information.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 10 October -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Professor Andrew Benjamin (UTS) will present a paper entitled "Being with animals". All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 10 October -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Carslaw 450, University of Sydney. Mary Morgan (Department of Economic History, London School of Economics) will speak on "Rational economic man: ideal types, idealization and caricature". For further information, please contact 9351-4226, or [email protected], or visit the website.

Macquarie University -- 11am, Tuesday 11 October -- room 720, building W6A. Professor Uriah Kriegel (University of Sydney/University of Arizona) will present a paper entitled "No representation without self-representation". For further information, please visit the website.

2nd Tuesday Philosophy Forum -- 7pm, Tuesday 11 October -- Crows Nest Centre, corner of Ernest Street and Willoughby Road, Crows Nest. Dr Adrian Heathcote will talk on "A paradox of geometrical probability". 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.

Philosophy and Epicurean banquet -- 7pm, Tuesday 11 October -- Perama Restaurant, 88 Audley Street, Petersham, Sydney. Banquet, wine and Dr Edward Spence speaking on Epicurus' philosophy. Perama is a One Chef Hat restaurant voted the best Mediterranean Restaurant in Sydney in 2005. Cost: $130. Bookings essential: 9569-7534.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 12 October -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 12 October -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. Professor Peter McCallum will speak on Beethoven and three notions of musical thought. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344.

Russoc guest lecture -- 7pm, Wednesday 12 October -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Dr Caroline West will speak on "Illusions and delusions of happiness". Come along and enjoy the usual abundance of food, drink and philosophy! All welcome! Cost: $3 (USU and Russoc), $6 (USU and non-Russoc), $7 (non-USU and Russoc), $10 (non-USU and non-Russoc). Membership is $5 (all welcome to join).

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 13 October -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Dr Dirk Moses (University of Sydney) will speak on "Toward a critical theory of genocide". For information please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 13 October -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. This week: "Memento" (issues: embodiment, phenomenology). For further information, please visit the website.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-7pm, Thursday 13 October -- glassed area, food court, level 1, Manning Building, University of Sydney. "West on happiness". A discussion, generally, of happiness and, particularly, of issues raised in Dr Caroline West's talk the evening before. No prerequisite reading and all welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

Lecture by Bob Brandom -- 6pm (for 6.15pm start), Thursday 13 October -- room 351, Education Building, University of Sydney. Professor Brandom will give a public lecture entitled "Reason, expression, and the philosophic enterprise". He will introduce a semantic theory of concepts, by contrast to more usual psychological approaches -- a pragmatic theory, in that the contents of concepts are understood in terms of the use of linguistic expressions, a rationalist or inferentialist theory, in that the content of a concept is understood in terms of its role in reasoning, as premise and conclusion of inference, and a normative theory, in that an essential feature of conceptual content is taken to be its determining the difference between correct and incorrect inferences involving that concept. The semantic theory contrasts with more familiar representationalist approaches to conceptual content, which look instead to what concepts refer to, pick out, or are true of. Please visit the website for more information.

Workshop with Bob Brandom -- Friday 14 October 2005 -- Refectory (H113), Main Quad, University of Sydney. A one-day workshop on themes related to various aspects of Professor Brandom's work. Speakers will include Paul Redding, Bruin Christensen, David Macarthur, Huw Price, and Bob Brandom himself. Workshop is free and open to all, but registration is required. For further information, please visit the website.

Macquarie University -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 14 October -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Postgraduate philosophy seminar. Kevin Sinclair will speak on a topic to be announced. Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 14 October -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: Jo Faulkner interviews Matthew Sharpe on the philosophy of Slavoj Zizek.

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 17 October -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Dr Karen Jones (University of Melbourne) will present a paper entitled "Quick and Smart? The implications of modularity for the rationality of emotions". All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

St James Ethics Centre -- Tuesday 18 October -- Sydney. The seventh Lawyers' Lecture, on "Lawyers and money": an opportunity for the legal profession to initiate a conversation which the centre hopes will stimulate debate about how the profession might realise the best that it is capable of for the ultimate benefit of society. Lawyers' lectures are free and open to all members of the public. Please visit the website for further information.

University of New South Wales -- 1.15pm-3pm, Tuesday 18 October -- philosophy seminar room, G55, Morven Brown Building. Karen Jones (University of Melbourne) will speak on "Intellectual trust in self and others". All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 18 October -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Jurgen Lawrenz will deliver a talk entitled "Art and freedom". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 19 October -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 19 October -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: to be announced. Please visit the website for more information.

Research institute for humanities and social sciences -- 6:15pm-7:30pm, Wednesday 19 October -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre (near Footbridge Theatre), Parramatta Road, Camperdown, University of Sydney. Professor Paul Redding will speak on Hegel. Cost: free. For more information, please visit the website or call 9351-5344.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 20 October -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Dr Kathy Bowrey (University of New Sout Wales) will speak on "Alternative IP? Copyleft, indigenous protocols and new juridifications of customary practices". For information please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 20 October -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. This week: "I Heart Huckabees" (issue: existentialism). For further information, please visit the website.

CHIMP -- 5pm-6.30pm, Thursday 20 October -- History Room, Main Quad S223 (SE corner), University of Sydney. Professor C. K. Raju (MCRP University, Bhopal and Centre for Studies in Civilizations, New Delhi) will speak on "Why time travel is possible, but time machines are not". Please visit the website above for further information. For details on the CHIMP mailing list, please click here.

New Acropolis Australia -- 6.30pm, Thursday 20 October -- Bridge Business College Imperial Arcade, level 1, 83-85 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. Guner Orucu will speak on "The routine of habits": is man a slave of his habits; mental habits, emotional habits, physical habits; how to use habits in favour of ourselves. Cost: free. Please visit the website for more information.

Cosmopolitanism and place -- Friday 21 October to Saturday 22 October -- Centre for social theory and design, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology, Sydney. This conference will bring together leading philosophers, architectural theorists, architects and designers. The cosmopolitan can be used to begin to locate oppositional strategies to globalisation. There may be on the level of design a correlate to cosmopolitanism. Fundamental to such a possibility would be the recognition that cosmopolitanism, in giving priority to place and region, cannot be reduced to a single organising set of ideas let alone a single appearance. Hence the question -- how is the relationship between cosmopolitanism and design to be understood? Keynote speakers: Sanford Kwinter (Rice University); Catherine Malabou (University of Paris X (Nanterre)); Cameron Tonkinwise (University of Technology, Sydney); Eyal Weizman (University of London). Cost: $125/$65. Bookings should be sent to the Centre for Social Theory and Design, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007. Please direct queries to Andrew Benjamin at [email protected].

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 21 October -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: Jo Faulkner will interview Linda Daley (RMIT) and Rebecca Hill (RMIT and Monash) on Luce Irigaray.

Designer babies: genes and ethics -- 9.30am-4.30pm, Saturday 22 October -- David Stewart Room, WEA House, 72 Bathurst Street, Sydney. Every parent wants the perfect baby, free of disease and disability. Advances in biological science are very close to, or already provide: embryo selection, cloning, replacement organs, spinal cord injury cures and cures for devastating diseases. But there are hidden dangers in this technology and serious ethical issues to be considered, as Dr Carol Lazer explains. Cost: $95/$85. Bookings: 9264-2781. Please visit the website for further information. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Philosophy dialectics -- 2pm, Saturday 22 October -- Botanical Gardens. Philosophy is discussed through several one-on-one discussions. These discussions are run every Saturday after a Philorum meeting. For more information, please contact John Bentley at [email protected].

University of Sydney -- 4pm, Monday 24 October -- Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Dr Bruin Christensen (University of Sydney) will present a paper entitled "The material basis of rationality". This paper will use the work of Latour -- and others -- to reconcile behaviour steering design and environmental education. All welcome! For further information, please contact Dr Moira Gatens at [email protected].

Unit for History and Philosophy of Science -- 6pm, Monday 24 October -- Science Faculty Meeting Room, Carslaw 450, University of Sydney. Evelleen Richards (University of Sydney) will speak on "Doing Darwin". For further information, please contact 9351-4226, or [email protected], or visit the website.

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 25 October -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Dr Alex Miller (Macquarie University) will speak on "Moral realism and program explanation". For further information, please contact Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or 9850-9935, or Clara Wong at [email protected] or 9850-8837, or visit the website.

Philosophy and Epicurean banquet -- 7pm, Tuesday 25 October -- Perama Restaurant, 88 Audley Street, Petersham, Sydney. Banquet, wine and Dr Edward Spence speaking on Epicurus' philosophy. Perama is a One Chef Hat restaurant voted the best Mediterranean Restaurant in Sydney in 2005. Cost: $130. Bookings essential: 9569-7534.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 26 October -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 27 October -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Dr John Sutton (Macquarie University) will speak on "Social memory, emotion and time in ethics and law". For information please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 27 October -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. This week: "Bladerunner" (issues: aesthetics, sensation). For further information, please visit the website.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-7pm, Thursday 27 October -- glassed area, food court, level 1, Manning Building, University of Sydney. Open forum on whatever issues participants raise. No prerequisite reading and all welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

University of New South Wales -- 2pm-4pm, Friday 28 October -- room 211, Morven Brown Building. Catherine Malabou (University of Paris X -- Nanterre) will speak on "Is confession the accomplishment of recognition? A reading of ��652-671 of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (Morality)". All welcome! For further information, please contact Simon Lumsden at 9385-2369 or [email protected], or Soon Ng at 9385-2371 or [email protected].

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 28 October -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: Jo Faulkner will interview George Vassilacopoulos (La Trobe) and Paul Ashton (VU, La Trobe) on Hegel.

Sydney Convivium of the Arts 2005 -- 9.30am-3.30 pm, Sunday 30 October -- Mahratta, 25 Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga NSW 2076 (corner of Pacific Highway). A day of inquiry, discussion and inspiration. Topics include: ethics, philosophy of religion, law, music, art, education, leadership, economics, the family and many more. Please visit the website for more information and phone 9489-0902 to book.

Free will and moral responsibility reading group -- 5:45pm, Monday 31 October -- Bill and Toni's, 74 Stanley Street, East Sydney. The inaugural meeting. All welcome -- just read the article and turn up: Robert Kane, "Agency, Responsibility, and Indeterminism: Reflections on Libertarian Theories of Free Will", in Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O'Rourke and David Shier (edd), Freedom and Determinism. For more information, please contact Brad Weslake at [email protected].

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 1 November -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Michael Robertson will deliver a talk entitled "Ethics and the social contract". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Guerrilla Radio Show -- 1am GMT, Wednesday 2 November -- online. Webcasts every Wednesday at http://www.kcsb.org. Topic this week: Eastern philosophy. What is "Eastern" philosophy? What sort (or sorts) of distinction(s) is intended by the use of "Eastern" in this context? Can all non-Western philosophy be classified as "Eastern" philosophy? Are there similarities between the various "Eastern" philosophical schools? Would it be better to conceive of "Eastern" philosophy as "Eastern" religion? Join the GRS crew and special guest Dr Roger Ames (University of Hawaii). Please visit the website for more information.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 2 November -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Gleebooks -- 6.30pm (for 7pm start), Wednesday 2 November -- Gleebooks bookstore, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Ann Curthoys and John Docker (with Stephen Garton, Dick Moses and Mary Spongberg) will launch Is history fiction?. What is history? How can we in the present know the past? In a wonderful journey that starts with the classical Greeks and travels through the centuries to more recent forms of history that are framed by Marxism, postmodernism and feminism, John Docker and Ann Curthoys find that history has a double character. It is both a rigorous scrutiny of sources, and, because it presents the results of its enquiries as narrative, it is part of a literary world too. Cost: free. Please visit the website for more information.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 2 November -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: Adrian Tan will speak on "Objectifying". Please visit the website for more information.

Macquarie Law -- 1pm-2pm, Thursday 3 November -- level 3, Trevor Martin Moot Court, W3A, Macquarie University. Professor Henry Reynolds (University of Tasmania) will speak on "Law, culture and memory". For information please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 3 November -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. This week: "Waking Life" (issues: dreaming, narrative, self). For further information, please visit the website.

CHIMP -- 5pm, Thursday 3 November -- Physics Lecture Theatre 5, Physics Building A28, University of Sydney. (Please note that the entrances to the physics building are locked shortly after 5pm, so please be on time.) Matthew Leifer (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics) will speak on "What's wrong with these quantum computations?".

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 4 November -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Philosophy dialectics -- 2pm, Saturday 5 November -- Botanical Gardens. Philosophy is discussed through several one-on-one discussions. These discussions are run every Saturday after a Philorum meeting. For more information, please contact John Bentley at [email protected].

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 8 November -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Dr Daniel Ross (Monash University) will speak on "Fishponds and rivers: Heidegger, Stiegler, Murnane". "My collaborator David Barison and I last year completed The Ister, our film about Heidegger's philosophy and the river Danube. Among the more direct consequences of this was that Bernard Stiegler came to seem even more interesting to me than he already did. Among the less direct consequences was that I re-read the works of Gerald Murnane, whom I consider, probably against his will, Australia's finest philosopher. In this paper I consider the relation between these consequences." For further information, please contact Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or 9850-9935, or Clara Wong at [email protected] or 9850-8837, or visit the website.

2nd Tuesday Philosophy Forum -- 7pm, Tuesday 8 November -- Crows Nest Centre, corner of Ernest Street and Willoughby Road, Crows Nest. Philosophical play. This is only tentative at this stage as we don't usually do November. Members of the forum would play the various parts in a play about the meaning of philosophy. Volunteer actors required: please let Gerry Nolan know if you think you would like to take a role. 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.

Guerrilla Radio Show -- 1am GMT, Wednesday 9 November -- online. Webcasts every Wednesday at http://www.kcsb.org. Topic this week: to be announced. Please visit the website for more information.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 9 November -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 10 November -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. This week: "Until the End of the World" (issues: memory, self, culture). For further information, please visit the website.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-7pm, Thursday 10 November -- glassed area, food court, level 1, Manning Building, University of Sydney. Utilitarianism, liberal equality, libertarianism, Marxism, communitarianism, citizenship theory, multiculturalism, and feminism. An overview of theories, based on extracts from Will Kymlicka's Contemporary Political Philosophy. No prerequisite reading and all welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

Steki Taverna -- 7pm, Thursday 10 November -- 2 O'Connell Street, Newtown. Rick Benitez and Soon Ng will speak on "Justice and piety in Plato and Confucius". Cost: $40 (for a philosophy presentation and discussion, a drama, and a Greek banquet). Bookings essential: 9516-2191. The 9th annual series of the Philosophy Nights is on "Faith in reason".

The origins and functions of causal thinking II -- Friday 11 November to Sunday 13 November -- University of Sydney. Workshop organised in association with the California Institute of Technology. Please visit the website above for registration details and other information. For future events organised by the Centre for Time, please click here.

Philosophy radio program -- 2pm-3pm, Friday 11 November -- online. Philosophical debate and excursion, hosted by postgraduates of the La Trobe University Philosophy Program. On air every Friday, 2pm-3pm, streamed online at the Sub FM website. Topic this week: to be announced.

Black and white films: cinema of conflict and reconciliation -- 6pm-8.30pm, Friday 11 November -- David Stewart Room, WEA House, 72 Bathurst Street, Sydney. Director George Miller calls films our "cultural dreamings". Some of the interesting "dreamings" have been those films dealing with relations between black and white Australians, including "Walkabout", "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith", "The Tracker", and "Rabbit Proof Fence". Join Dr Mark Byrne to find out what these films can teach us about the past and future of the reconciliation process. Cost: $33. Bookings: 9264-2781. Please visit the website for more information. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

The universal declaration on bioethics and human rights -- 6pm-10pm, Friday 11 November -- Sancta Sophia College, Sydney University, Camperdown. Justice Michael Kirby has just returned from chairing the UNESCO Committee that drafted the proposed Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. He will describe the process and explain his conviction that the global developments of human rights will increasingly influence the directions of our law, after overcoming initial insularity and hostility. Cost: $95/$65 (includes three-course meal and wine). Enquiries: 9247-2709. Please visit the website for more information. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Continental Philosophy Group -- 1.30pm, Sunday 13 November -- Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, corner of Collins and Norton Streets. Annual conference. Bring a plate. People wishing to read a paper need to register title one month before. Cost: $5. All welcome! Please visit the website for further information.

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 15 November -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Peter Schmiedgen will deliver a talk entitled "Facing up to Levinas". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Guerrilla Radio Show -- 1am GMT, Wednesday 16 November -- online. Webcasts every Wednesday at http://www.kcsb.org. Topic this week: to be announced. Please visit the website for more information.

Macquarie University -- 11am, Wednesday 16 November -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Professor Michael Devitt (City University of New York) will present a paper entitled "Resurrecting biological essentialism", which will defend the doctrine that biological kinds, particularly species, have essences that are partly, if not entirely, underlying intrinsic, mostly genetic, properties. For further information, please contact Dr Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or visit the website.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 16 November -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 16 November -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: Alan McCay will speak on prediction and free will. Please visit the website for more information.

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 17 November -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. For further information, please visit the website.

Philosophy dialectics -- 2pm, Saturday 19 November -- Botanical Gardens. Philosophy is discussed through several one-on-one discussions. These discussions are run every Saturday after a Philorum meeting. For more information, please contact John Bentley at [email protected].

Macquarie University -- 11am-1pm, Tuesday 22 November -- room 720, building W6A, Macquarie University. Dr Jennifer Duke-Yonge (Macquarie University) will speak on "Thinking logically about natural language". For further information, please contact Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected] or 9850-9935, or Clara Wong at [email protected] or 9850-8837, or visit the website.

Guerrilla Radio Show -- 1am GMT, Wednesday 23 November -- online. Webcasts every Wednesday at http://www.kcsb.org. Topic this week: to be announced. Please visit the website for more information.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 23 November -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Sydney Bioethics Seminar Series -- 5pm-7pm, Wednesday 23 November -- Carslaw 159, University of Sydney. Barry Jones will speak on "Tackling complex issues in an age of �wedge politics�, 'spin' and 'the new normal'". For more information, please contact Michael Selgelid at [email protected].

Platonic Society -- 3pm-5pm, Thursday 24 November -- Room 1A, library, Macquarie University. Free philosophy movie screenings every Thursday during term. All that's required is an interest in philosophy and/or movies. Usually followed by a short discussion. For further information, please visit the website.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-7pm, Thursday 24 November -- glassed area, food court, level 1, Manning Building, University of Sydney. Communitarianism, citizenship theory, multiculturalism, and feminism. An overview of theories, based on extracts from Will Kymlicka's Contemporary Political Philosophy. No prerequisite reading and all welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website. Note: if the building is closed, meet out front.

Steki Taverna -- 7pm, Thursday 24 November -- 2 O'Connell Street, Newtown. Drago Heler will speak on "The Upanishads: Indian philosophy and the Western world". Cost: $40 (for a philosophy presentation and discussion, a drama, and a Greek banquet). Bookings essential: 9516-2191. The 9th annual series of the Philosophy Nights is on "Faith in reason".

The universe: its origins and its end -- 10.30am-5pm, Saturday 26 November -- Main Campus, University of Sydney, Camperdown. In the 21st century, what can cosmology tell us about the beginning of the universe, about its apparently accelerating expansion and about the beginnings and the end of life? Dr Ray Younis will focus on these and related questions in this fully illustrated day. Cost: $115. Enquiries: 9036-4789. Please visit the website for more information. Details of this event were found at Sydney Talks.

Free will and moral responsibility reading group -- 5:45pm, Monday 28 November 2005 -- Bill and Toni's, 74 Stanley Street, East Sydney. Reading: Keith Lehrer, "Freedom and the power of preference" and Carl Ginet, "Trying to act" in Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O'Rourke and David Shier (edd), Freedom and determinism, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2004. For further information, please contact Brad Weslake at [email protected].

Thinking with animals -- Tuesday 29 November -- room 211, Morven Brown Building, University of New South Wales. Throughout Western civilization, animals have been denied those qualities that traditionally designate human sovereignty: reason, language, a soul, an ethical relation to death or to the world. Especially since the 1970s, scholars in all fields are now paying close attention to the ways in which thinking about animals calls into question the sovereignties of the human subject. Please visit the website for more information.

Sydney Shove -- 6.30pm (for 7pm start), Tuesday 29 November -- Beer garden of the Ashfield Hotel, corner of Brown Street and Liverpool Road. Political forum. Topic this week: round the table topics of interest. For more information, please contact John August at [email protected].

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 29 November -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Hazel Popp will deliver a talk entitled "Do we need God to be good?". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Eye-Site: situating practice and theory in the visual arts -- Wednesday 30 November to Friday 2 December -- University of Sydney. The Annual Conference of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand. Please visit the website for more information.

Guerrilla Radio Show -- 1am GMT, Wednesday 30 November -- online. Webcasts every Wednesday at http://www.kcsb.org. Topic this week: to be announced. Please visit the website for more information.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 30 November -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Centre for Human Aspects of Science and Technology -- 6.30pm, Thursday 1 December -- Eastern Avenue Auditorium, University of Sydney. The 2005 Templeton Lecture. Dr Jill Tarter will speak on "Seeking extraterrestrial physics and intelligence during the International Year of Physics: What's SETI been up to?". This talk discusses what SETI researchers have been doing and the new tools we are now building. It discusses our plans for success, our plans for continued improvement over time, and our plans for training the next generation, should success continue to elude us. This event is free and open to the public. Please visit the website for more information.

Language and reality: themes from the work of Michael Devitt -- 9.15am-6.30pm, Friday 2 December -- lecture theatre 1, building W5A, Macquarie University. Workshop with Professor Michael Devitt (CUNY). Speakers will include: Stephen Crain (Macquarie University); Fiona Cowie (Caltech); Peter Godfrey Smith (ANU/Harvard); Frank Jackson (ANU). Please e-mail Clara Wong at [email protected] if you wish to attend. Please visit the website for further information.

Centre for Human Aspects of Science and Technology -- 1.30-4.30pm, Friday 2 December -- Old Geology Lecture Theatre, University of Sydney. Workshop with Dr Tarter and Professor Paul Davies on the topic of "Preparing for a SETI success". Afternoon tea at 3pm. Cost: $10 waged, $5 unwaged. Open to the public. Please visit the website for more information.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 7 December -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Guerrilla Radio Show -- 1am GMT, Wednesday 7 December -- online. Webcasts every Wednesday at http://www.kcsb.org. Topic this week: to be announced. Please visit the website for more information.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 7 December -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: open forum on "Should we aim for full unemployment?". Isn't the call for work/life balance absurd? Shouldn't we be aiming to eliminate work altogether? Aren't most workers worse off than most slaves in that most slaves would rather not be one? Or is work necessary? What's the most useful definition of work? Please visit the website for more information.

Russoc discussion group -- 5pm-6.30pm, Thursday 8 December -- upstairs bistro section at the back of The Royal pub, corner of Abercrombie Street and Codrington Street, Chippendale (close to Sydney University). Open forum. All welcome! For more info, including info as to how to get there, visit the discussion section of this website.

Steki Taverna -- 7pm, Thursday 8 December -- 2 O'Connell Street, Newtown. Edward Spence will speak on "Faith in reason: is morality based on religious faith or philosophical reason?". Cost: $40 (for a philosophy presentation and discussion, a drama, and a Greek banquet). Bookings essential: 9516-2191. The 9th annual series of the Philosophy Nights is on "Faith in reason".

Philosophy dialectics -- 2pm, Saturday 10 December -- Botanical Gardens. Philosophy is discussed through several one-on-one discussions. These discussions are run every Saturday after a Philorum meeting. For more information, please contact John Bentley at [email protected].

Gleebooks -- 4pm (for for 4.30pm start), Saturday 10 December -- Gleebooks Bookshop, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Philosophy and friendship: thinking about identity and difference by Sandra Lynch will be launched by Professor Genevieve Lloyd. This book explores the meaning and significance of friendship, from Aristotle to Derrida. It considers ideals of intimacy and fusion in the context of claims that such ideals are unrealistic and even dangerous. Tensions between love and respect, identity and difference, self and other are closely examined. Cost: free. RSVP: please phone Gleebooks on 9660-2333.

Continental Philosophy Group -- 3pm-6pm, Sunday 11 December -- Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, corner of Collins and Norton Streets. Xmas party -- open forum: "Is the meaning of life 42? If not what is it?". Cost: $5. All welcome! Please visit the website for further information.

Symposium on Martin Heidegger and the aesthetics of living -- 9am-6.30pm, Monday 12 December to Wednesday 14 December -- history lecture theatre, Main Quad, University of Sydney. Keynote speakers: Gianni Vattimo (University of Turin), Andrew Benjamin (University of Technology, Sydney) and Jeff Malpas (University of Tasmania). "The Ister" will be screened over two nights. Papers are invited on the general question of Heidegger's relevance to aesthetics of being, reflecting and building the question of Is-ness within our fragmented and pluralistic universe. Questions might include: Heidegger's contribution to modern theoretical debates on poetics; Heidegger's thinking of history and presencing, artistic creativity and the poetics of existence; art's relevance to time and space; art's relationship to divinity, to nothingness, to truth as uncovering. Papers are also invited that address Heidegger's own historicity and political contradictions, exploring the question of art, philosophy, and politics in Heidegger's thinking and beyond. Abstracts (about 200 words) should be e-mailed to Vrasidas Karalis at [email protected]. For further information, please contact Dr Robert Sinnerbrink at [email protected].

Philosophy cafe -- 8pm, Tuesday 13 December -- Berkelouw's Books, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt. Sam Alexander will deliver a talk entitled "Christmas special: The real Jesus". Evening includes presentation and discussion. Cost: $5, which also buys you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate. For further details, please visit the website.

Centre for Time -- Wednesday 14 December to Thursday 15 December -- Tusculum, Potts Point. Summer foundations workshop: "Time, information and perspective in the quantum world". Expected visitors for this year's workshop will include Guido Bacciagaluppi (Paris), Jeff Bub (Maryland), and Michael Dickson (South Carolina). Cost: $50/$20. Please visit the conference website for further information.

Guerrilla Radio Show -- 1am GMT, Wednesday 14 December -- online. Webcasts every Wednesday at http://www.kcsb.org. Topic this week: to be announced. Please visit the website for more information.

Platonic Society -- 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 14 December -- SAM Bar, Macquarie University. "Philosophy Conversations @ the Bar" every Wednesday during term. Food and drink provided for Platonic Society members. More a casual gathering than a study group, each week may have a theme (or not). No formal study of philosophy required. Its enough to have an interest in philosophy and a liking for stimulating conversation. For further information, please visit the website.

Guerrilla Radio Show -- 1am GMT, Wednesday 21 December -- online. Webcasts every Wednesday at http://www.kcsb.org. Topic this week: to be announced. Please visit the website for more information.

Philorum -- 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, Wednesday 21 December -- The Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. All welcome! Cost: buy yourself something from the bar. Topic this week: John August will speak on "Light pollution". Light pollution takes away the stars from our sky and narrows the life experience we have in the city, taking us away from the spectacular starscape our ancestors took for granted. Unlike other forms of pollution, there is no excuse, and little amelioration - we cannot say so easily that with improved technology and wealth we will reduce light pollution, as we did with air pollution and photochemical smog. Light pollution is always with us as our economy "progresses" - and tells us something important about economic development, and the cost of progress. Later in the evening a "quick issue" on euthanasia. Please visit the website for more information.

Guerrilla Radio Show -- 1am GMT, Wednesday 28 December -- online. Webcasts every Wednesday at http://www.kcsb.org. Topic this week: to be announced. Please visit the website for more information.

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