Dear Ken

You wrote:
>Philosophical Services has a client who is looking for someone to work as
an
observer / analyst on a corporate change project of 4-6 months in duration.
The project will be based in Dundee Scotland. The candidate must already be
based in the UK -- preferably in Scotland -- and hold an academic position
in a university..............
.......................
The client is looking for a people-oriented philosopher who will work with
the team to act as observer/analyst capturing the changes as they happen,
capturing the experience and emotions of the team as they go through the
campaign and documenting the results and additional ideas that emerge. The
Observer/Analyst would be seen as part of the team and would probably stay
in the hotel from which the team will be based during the campaign.

The client is looking for an innovative and outgoing philosopher who can
assimilate him/her self into the team and be sensitive to the fact that
they
will all be going through a period of significant change with all the
accompanying issues that will entail.
<

The consultant philosophers registered with the Society of Consultant
Philosophers are well suited for this job. However, you ask for an academic
philosopher and this puzzles me. Why does the consultant have to have a
position at a university? It is very unlikely that we here in Britain can
find an academic philosopher (trained in practical philosophy!) who can
take 4-6 months off to do such a project. Surely you want the best person
for the job, not necessarily someone with academic status?

Anyway, I will forward this message to a few academic philosophers I know
in Dundee and near Scotland, but my questions remain......

Kind regards
Karin Murris

Call for Papers for Eastern Division Meeting

The ASPCP meets in conjunction with all three division meetings of the
American Philosophical Association (APA). Papers are welcome on any topic
concerning philosophical counseling. In addition, contributors may also
submit proposals for workshops.

Deadline for Submissions: May 15, 1999

Finally, if you are interested in chairing a session, serving as a
commentator, or participating in some other manner, please include this
information with your submission.

Send submissions directly to:

Dr. Vaughana Feary
President Elect, ASPCP
37 Parker Drive
Morris Plains, NJ 07950

Off: (973) 984-6692
Fax: (973) 984-6692

Regards, Kenn

Kenneth F.T. Cust
Conference Coordinator
27th Conference on Value Inquiry
Center for Applied & Professional Ethics
Central Missouri State University
Warrensburg, MO 64093
kencust@...

For the latest information on the 27th Conference on Value Inquiry, please
see our web site at http://cape.cmsu.edu.

Philosophical Services has a client who is looking for someone to work as an
observer / analyst on a corporate change project of 4-6 months in duration.
The project will be based in Dundee Scotland. The candidate must already be
based in the UK -- preferably in Scotland -- and hold an academic position
in a university.

The role will be working with a sales team of about 20-25 people who are
part of a subsidiary of a larger organization. The aim of the project is to
experiment with a different approach to running a sales campaign - changing,
redesigning and eliminating a number of past practices and processes.

This is a very exciting project and a major leap of empowerment for the
organization which has generally driven change from the center and sought to
impose a high degree of control on the sales processes. It might make
an excellent case study on change management and teamworking.

The client is looking for a people-oriented philosopher who will work with
the team to act as observer/analyst capturing the changes as they happen,
capturing the experience and emotions of the team as they go through the
campaign and documenting the results and additional ideas that emerge. The
Observer/Analyst would be seen as part of the team and would probably stay
in the hotel from which the team will be based during the campaign.

The client is looking for an innovative and outgoing philosopher who can
assimilate him/her self into the team and be sensitive to the fact that they
will all be going through a period of significant change with all the
accompanying issues that will entail.

The observer/analyst would be working with the local managers and the
client. The client needs to fill this position as soon as possible. I was
only contacted by the client today and thus have rushed to get this
potential philosophical consulting opportunity out as quickly as possible.

If you satisfy the requirements specified above and would like to be
considered for this philosophical consulting opportunity, please email me as
soon as possible with details of the amount you would charge, your academic
institution and when and for how long you would be available. While the time
frame for this consulting opportunity as not been fully determined, it is
anticipated that it will take place during the summer months.

This information will be posted to the Philosophical Services web site over
the next few days under "Requests." For those who are interested in learning
more about Philosophical Services and philosophical consulting and
counseling opportunities, please check out our web site at the following
address:

	 http://www.philosophical-services.com

Regards, Kenn

Kenneth F.T. Cust, RPN, Ph.D.
Philosophical Services
607 SE 150 Road
Warrensburg, MO 64093

Phone: (660) 429-6267
Email: kencust@...
WWW: http://philosophical-services.com

Dear Virginia and others interested in cafe philo's

In order to help you with the setting up of your cafe, you might be
interested in a course the British Society of Consultant Philosophers is
running on 20 June in London.
We have invited American philosopher Dr Gale Prawda to run a workshop
helping philosophers to start such a venture. She has a great deal of
experience in running cafe philo's in London and Paris. For further info,
see below!
or, you might prefer to get in touch with her yourself: Mssiprawda@...

Good luck
Karin Murris

SCP DIARY OF EVENTS

FEBRUARY 1999
26-28,  Residential Socratic Dialogue Workshop. In cooperation with Leiden
Dialogue Centre.  The workshop consists off two parts: 1. A one day
Socratic dialogue (as often used in business/organisations); 2. Theoretical
introduction to and reflection upon the method and specific exercises
practising the method. Facilitators: Jos Delnoij (Part 1), Karin Murris &
Jos Delnoij (Part 2). Venue: Claridge House, Lingfield, Surrey. Cost: £219
(institutions), £179 (individuals). Some subsidised places available for
the unwaged. Maximum amount of participants: 10. To secure your place,
please enrol a s a p, but not later than 1 January. Contact: Dr Karin
Murris, SCP, Old School Centre, Newport, Pembrokeshire, SA42 OTS. Tel:
01239 820440; fax: 01239 820049; email: karinmurris@....

APRIL 1999
14-18   Residential Level 2 & 3 course Philosophical Enquiry in Education.
in association with SAPERE. Venue: Cherwell Centre, Norham Gardens, Oxford.
Maximum amount of participants: 18. Facilitators: Roger Sutcliffe, Sara
Liptai, Karin Murris. Cost: £180 (waged), £130 (unwaged); Level 2: £300
(waged), £250 (unwaged) ; Level 3 (Part 1&2): £320 (waged), £270 (unwaged).
Contact: Dr Karin Murris, SCP, Old School Centre, Newport, Pembrokeshire,
SA42 OTS. Tel: 01239 820440; fax: 01239 820049; email:
karinmurris@....

24,25   Two-day workshop in Dilemma-training. Tutor: Dries Boele. Venue:
Conway  Hall, Red Lion Square, London. Please apply early (limited amount
of      places).Contact: David Arnaud, 2 Midholm, Wembley Park HA9 9LJ,
Middlesex.Tel:0181 385 1781. Email: david_arnaud@...

MAY 1999
20-24   Residential Training Course for Socratic Dialogue Facilitators.
Organised by    the Dutch  Socratics in cooperation with SCP. Language:
English. Venue:         Netherlands. Contact: Jos Delnoij, Leiden Dialogue
Centre, Herenstraat 52,         2313 AL Leiden, Netherlands. Tel: 00-31-71
5122771. Email:
         ledice@...

29,30   Follow-up workshop in  Philosophical Counselling. Sat 2am to 5.30,
and
         Sun 9.30-5.30. Venue: Conway Hall (London). Only for those who have
         completed the Introductory Course in Philosophical Counselling.
Cost: shared    rent of hall (approx £15 p/p). Please contact: David
Arnaud,2 Midholm,       Wembley Park HA9 9LJ, Middlesex.Tel: 0181 385 1781.
Email:  david_arnaud@...




JUNE 1999
4-6   Residential Level Level 1 course Philosophical Enquiry in Education.
In association with SAPERE. Cost: Level 3 (Part 1&2): £320 (waged), £270
(unwaged). Venue: Claridge House, Lingfield, Surrey. Facilitators: Roger
Sutcliffe, Karin Murris. Contact: Dr Karin Murris, SCP, Old School Centre,
Newport, Pembrokeshire, SA42 OTS. Tel: 01239 820440; fax: 01239 820049;
email: karinmurris@....

20      One-day workshop How to run a philosophy cafe? Facilitator: Gale
Prawda.         Venue: Conway Hall (London).Contact: David Arnaud, 2
Midholm,        Wembley Park HA9 9LJ, Middlesex.Tel: 0181 385 1781. Email:
david_arnaud@...

         26      SAPERE AGM and Conference (theme to be decided). Venue:
Department      of Educational Studies, Norham Gardens, Oxford. Further
details to be   announced.

         27-29   Residential Conference Moral and Political Reasoning in
Environmental   Practice. Organised by Society for Applied Philosophy.
Venue: Mansfield        College, Oxford University. Cost: £130 (some
subsidised places for the       unwaged). Contact: Adam Hedgecoe, Society
for Applied Philosophy, Senate  House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. Tel:
0171 504 2959. Email:   a.hedgecoe@....

JULY 1999
24-27   Residential Pre-Conference Workshops :
         1. Introductory Course in Philosophical Counselling
          Tutors: Tim Lebon, Karin Murris
         2. A Socratic dialogue.
         Facilitator: Hans Bolten
         3. Level 1 Course in Philosophy with Children
         Tutor: Roger Sutcliffe
         (Please ask for details)


27-30   Residential Fifth International Conference on Philosophical
Practice. Featuring Philosophy with Children, Philosophical Counselling,
Socratic dialogue (in business). Venue: Wadham College, Oxford. Contact: Dr
Karin Murris, SCP, Old School Centre, Newport, Pembrokeshire, SA42 OTS.
Tel: 01239 820440; fax: 01239 820049; email: karinmurris@....

.

Hello Virginia,
I think that once a month is good to start with and if there is a great
interest in it move on to twice a month, or even every week.
I like Marc Sautet's idea that the visitors to the philosophical cafe
bring with them their subjects and than one of these is chosen by the group
for discussion. One hour and a half  to two hours I find ideal. No reading a
head
is necessary. People have often a lot already in their heads which they like
to get
spoken out. I think the real art of the moderator is to create a climate in
which people
really listen to each other and think together on the subject.
For more on the Cafe philos and Salons see also The Philosophical Counseling
Website
under the topic related pages (almost at the bottom of the page)
Shlomit

   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shlomit C. Schuster. Philosophical Counselor in Private Practice.
Horkania 23, apt.2., Jerusalem 93305,  ISRAEL
The International Philosophical First-Aid Line: 972-2-6795090
E-mail: centersophon@...
The Philosophical Counseling Website:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5914
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Virginia Suddath wrote:

> From:   Virginia Suddath <suddath@...>
>
> I am in the planning stages of organizing a philosophical cafe in
> Honolulu -- along with other graduate students and faculty members in the
> Philosophy Dept. at Univ. of Hawaii. We have a space that will be made
> available to us off-campus that is connected to a coffeehouse. Any
> suggestions about the start-up of such a venture would be greatly
> appreciated. How often (once a month?). What criteria do you use in
> deciding on topics for discussion? Have you found that a single moderator
> works best, or is a pair a feasible option? How long do you usually plan
> on the discussions lasting? Do you suggest readings ahead? Suggestions
> about these areas or any others would be much appreciated. Thanks in
> advance.
> Virginia Suddath

Hi !

We are running a Philosophical Cafe in Lima/Peru since April 98. The first
time we suggested a topic. I remember that it was about the distinction
between philosophy, science and arts. After each  discussion meeting
participants are asked to suggest discussion topics for the next meeting.
Then we vote. Everbody can vote for all the topics he likes. The topic that
was most voted wins and the person that proposed that topic introduces it the
next time. If he/she doesn´t consider himself/herself prepared to make an
introduction he/she can suggest somebody else to do it for him/her.

We meet every saturday at 19.30. So if people doesn´t know what to do on
saturday evening they don´t have to ask, but they can be sure that there will
be the Philosophical Cafe at our place.

Our discussions last between 1 1/2 and 2 hours.

We have only one moderator (the person that moderates changes from time to
time). What would more than 1 moderator be good for?

We don´t suggest readings unless we are directly asked for it, because our
experience here (in Lima) is that people won´t read what they are suggested
to anyway, and those who are interested will read and prepare themselves even
though we don´t tell them to.

If you understand Spanish there is more information about us in:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/7124/cafes.html

Best regards

Carmen Zavala
Project of Applied Philosophy - Buho Rojo
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/7124


Virginia Suddath wrote:

> From:   Virginia Suddath <suddath@...>
>
> I am in the planning stages of organizing a philosophical cafe in
> Honolulu -- along with other graduate students and faculty members in the
> Philosophy Dept. at Univ. of Hawaii. We have a space that will be made
> available to us off-campus that is connected to a coffeehouse. Any
> suggestions about the start-up of such a venture would be greatly
> appreciated. How often (once a month?). What criteria do you use in
> deciding on topics for discussion? Have you found that a single moderator
> works best, or is a pair a feasible option? How long do you usually plan
> on the discussions lasting? Do you suggest readings ahead? Suggestions
> about these areas or any others would be much appreciated. Thanks in
> advance.
> Virginia Suddath
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Is ONElist important to you?  Has it changed your life?
> http://www.onelist.com
> Come visit our new web site and share with us your stories
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This is one of the  lists sponsored by The Free Lance Academy, home of
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> e-mail, mailto:phil-counsel-unsubscribe@onelist.com

Hi Everybody,
This is a note on Plato that might interest people on this list!

  Section from the New York Times
         nytdirect@...

              Sunday, March 7, 1999

              ON THE FRONT PAGE

              For Homeless, Rebirth With Socrates and Plato
              By ETHAN BRONNER
              SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The University of Notre Dame has a
              philosophical literature class that teaches students who
are currently or
              formerly homeless. There are now seven such courses in the
country
              with money coming from various sources, including the
Federal
              Department of Education.

(for the whole article visit the NYT online and use its search machine)
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Shlomit C. Schuster. Philosophical Counselor in Private Practice.
Horkania 23, apt.2., Jerusalem 93305,  ISRAEL
The International Philosophical First-Aid Line: 972-2-6795090
E-mail: centersophon@...
The Philosophical Counseling Website:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5914
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am in the planning stages of organizing a philosophical cafe in
Honolulu -- along with other graduate students and faculty members in the
Philosophy Dept. at Univ. of Hawaii. We have a space that will be made
available to us off-campus that is connected to a coffeehouse. Any
suggestions about the start-up of such a venture would be greatly
appreciated. How often (once a month?). What criteria do you use in
deciding on topics for discussion? Have you found that a single moderator
works best, or is a pair a feasible option? How long do you usually plan
on the discussions lasting? Do you suggest readings ahead? Suggestions
about these areas or any others would be much appreciated. Thanks in
advance.
Virginia Suddath

Hi everyone,

	 I thoroughly enjoyed our last cafe-philo; you'll find its summary right
after the announcement for our next one, viz., "Does the end justify the
means?" I hope to see you all there. In the meantime, have a wonderful week.

	 Best,

	 Bernard










CAFÉ PHILO

Come all to the Twelfth Informal
Philosophical Gathering
at

LE POÈME

Prince and Elizabeth Street in Nolita
on Thursday, March 18th, 1999
between 6 and 8 PM
  (The philosophy is free; you pay for the food you order)

***

Thursday’s topic will be:



DOES THE END JUSTIFY THE MEANS?


The gatherings are moderated by Bernard Roy, Ph.D., Department of
Philosophy, Baruch College, CUNY
General Studies Program, NYU

For more information, call Le Poème, at 941-1106
or Bernard at 387-1684, email: br8@...
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135/

Does the end justify the means?


When things are directed to some end, one can proceed in the right way and
the wrong way.

					 Aquinas, On Kingship, 1

I reply that a ruler who is strong and bold will always be able to overcome
such difficulties, sometimes encouraging his subjects to think relief is at
hand, sometimes terrifying with stories of what the enemy will do to them
if they concede defeat, sometimes taking appropriate action to neutralize
those who seem to him to be agitators.

					 Machiavelli, The Prince, 10

So it is necessary, for a ruler, if he wants to hold on to power, to learn
how not to be good, and to know when it is and when it is not necessary to
use this knowledge.

					 Machiavelli, Ibid., 15

Nevertheless, we see that in practice, in these days, those rulers who have
not thought it important to keep their word have achieved great things, and
have known how to employ cunning to confuse and disorientate other men.

					 Machiavelli, Ibid., 18

Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own
person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always
at the same time as an end.

Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, Paton, 96.

…actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong
as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

					 J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism


***********************************************


Summary of  "What is the Source of Morality?"
March 4th, 1999

I started by stating my position on the issue: the source of morality is
authority followed by critical evaluation. The authority comes in the form
of parents and culture. The position was objected to because it was more a
theory of learning than an account of the source of morality. It was
thought that the source of morality would be better located in something of
a metaphysical nature. One suggestion was God, and another was some
objective standard. Another suggestion was that the source of morality was
located in a feeling of caring. But I was not entirely clear because there
was also the identification of moral conduct with game playing. Game
playing, of course, became associated with rule-following. Wasn’t morality
about rules?
The grounding of morality in objectivity, feeling or rules drew some
immediate criticisms from cultural relativists who argued that culture and
society were the sources of morality. But, if cultural relativism is right,
how do you explain that cultural values change "for the better"? There was
some protracted talk about baby eaters until someone begged that we pick
some other example. However, although it may be true that values vary from
culture to culture that does not make them "moral." Baby eating may be
practiced in some cultures; the practice does not make it moral.
There was a brief foray into the virtue ethics of McIntyre on the
suggestion that social practices could lead to the moral life. The prospect
of an Aristotelico-McIntyre virtue ethics did not seem to impress anyone.
Instead, there was a desire to return to cultures and to our reptilian
brain. There was sustained interest in the social contract theory, but no
one cared to defend the view that reason was at the root of the social
contract.
Nietzsche was mentioned in conjunction with the overman who is beyond good
and evil. There was some dispute as to the exact meaning of the overman.
Was he supposed to overcome reason, rules, the historical narrative? But
how, by sublimation?
The reptilian brain hypothesis—our pre-evolution brain—brought about a
discussion of fear and fear engendered a new discourse on evil. The source
of morality is fear; we act morally because of our fear of being punished.
We all possess a "dark" side or an evil inclination; worse yet aspirations
of destruction. We need morality to keep us from realizing these
tendencies. Someone became worried as to why some people willingly acted
out their evil sides while others were pretty good at controlling it.
Psychology was a suggested answer. There was close to a consensus about the
presence of that evil, and many seemed fascinated with this human aspect.

Sorry for the previous uninformative reply.  That was the result of a slip
of the finger.

> My name is Mikica, and I've just subscribed to this list.
> I am just writing a paper on Plato's review of Parmenides'
> ontology in his dialogue "Sophist". So, if anypne has any
> material, ideas, or suggestions, please send them to me.

Mikica, I am the owner of the phil-counsel list.  I think you will get a
better response to your question if you subscribe to my plato list
(mailto:plato-subscribe@onelist.com ) or the plato-parmenides list
(mailto:plato-parmenides-subscribe@onelist.com) and post your requests
there.

This list is intended primarily for discussion about philosophical
counseling or philosophical practice.

Lance Fletcher, President
The Free Lance Academy Foundation
http://www.freelance-academy.org
lance@...

Hi everybody.
     My name is Mikica, and I've just subscribed to this list.
     I am just writing a paper on Plato's review of Parmenides' ontology in
his dialogue "Sophist". So, if anypne has any material, ideas, or
suggestions, please send them to me.
     Thanks a lot

Hi everybody.
My name is Mikica, and I've just subscribed to this list.
I am just writing a paper on Plato's review of Parmenides' ontology in his
dialogue "Sophist". So, if anypne has any material, ideas, or suggestions,
please send them to me.
Thanks a lot

Here's a service that may interest members of this list.



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Philiosophical Psychology (PHP) March 1999 Contents
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 12:26:57 -0000
From: sara-ed <sara-ed@...>
Reply-To: Philosophical Psychology <PHP@...>
To: PHP@...

Dear Colleague

You have registered with SARA to receive the contents pages
for all issues of this journal from now on. Please find
below the latest contents page.


PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Volume 12 Number 1 March 1999

ISSN 0951-5089

Concepts: where Fodor went wrong
ALEX LEVINE & MARK H. BICKHARD 5

The contextual stance
GORDON R. FOXALL 25

Qualia, space, and control (Winner of the 1998 William James
Prize, SPP)
PETE MANDIK 47

>From bodily motions to bodily intentions: the perception of bodily activity
WILLIAM S. WILKERSON 61

On becoming a person
JOHN BARRESI 79

reviews
Review of Ned Block, Owen Flanagan & Güven Güzeldere's The
nature of consciousness: philosophical debates
DON GUSTAFSON 99

Review of Harold E. Pashler's The psychology of attention
A. H. C. VAN DER HEIJDEN 102

Review of Annette Barnes' Seeing through self-deception
ALFRED R. MELE 104

Review of Rosalind Picard's Affective computing
PAUL E. GRIFFITHS 107

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* * * CALL FOR PHILOSOPHY "PAPERS" * * *

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In just 4 months, nearly 2000 people have become Philosophy
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"If we are philosophers,
      we are philosophers for life."

Shlomit Schuster wrote:

> file:///D|/WINDOWS/P_ von Morstein Lecture & Workshop.htm
>
>    ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Lecture and Workshop at Beit Ticho (7.3.1999--18.00 till 21.00)
>                                         Harav Kook 8, Jerusalem (Fee:
> 30 Shekels)
> and Lecture at Keren Heinrich Boell (9.3.1999-20.00 till 22.00)
>                                          Nachlat Benjamin 24, Tel Aviv
> (Entrance Free)
>
>    * Anxiety and Depression: A Philosophical Investigation in
>      Practical Respects
>
> by Petra von Morstein, Professor Emeritus, Calgary University, Canada
>
> Abstract Lecture:
>
>         " There is not a philosophical method, though there are
> indeed methods, like different therapies." (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
>
>         Uncertainty is built into the nature of human consciousness.
> "A philosophical problem has the form: I don't know my way about."
> (Wittgenstein). Fundamental uncertainty and disorientation are the
> primordial source
> of mental suffering. Affirmation of inevitable uncertainty transforms
> our
> perspective upon relevant sufferings. Rather than seek to eliminate
> one's
> suffering one may endeavour to live with it resourcefully and thus
> integrate it into
> the larger context of one's life.
>         Major mental suffering such as anxiety and depression have
> their origin in fundamental human disorientation and must be
> recognized as
> indispensable sources of cognition and morality.
>         Through anxiety consciousness is directed at the unknown. In
> extreme anxiety I am face to face with myself - without relatedness,
> undifferentiated, without pronouncable identity.
> In anxiety neither I nor anything else in reality are differentiated.
> Anxiety is a way of knowing myself which is irreplaceable by any
> other way: I am free but cannot choose just because there
> is nothing to be known and identified.
>         Anxiety is unbounded dreadful openness. By contrast,
> depression sets paralyzing boundaries. One of the characteristics of
> extreme
> depression is a sense of loneliness, of being cut off and isolated
> from one's world.
> Depression can be a - very painful - holiday from anxiety. In the
> darkness of
> depression we are hidden and protected from the open.
>         Anxiety is fundamental for 'becoming who I am'. In depression
> the process of knowing and realizing oneself is stymied, disrupted or
> even terminated. Anxiety may enliven the need to make sense of
> reality. In
> the disengangement of depression this need is frustrated and numbed.
> Anxiety beholds  undifferentiated open reality. Depression views the
> self as
> isolated, pained and worthless.
>         Neither in extreme anxiety nor in extreme depression can a
> self survive as a self. Philosophy and psychology are deeply connected
> in
> reflecting the task of developing *through* anxiety and depression
> rather than
> against them. Some philosophical methods are therapies to get us
> unstuck from
> suffering in anxiety and depression - as well as from such 'truths' as
> are
> supposed to eliminate uncertainty.
>
>         I will illustrate my claims with examples.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>    * Self-identity and its Difficulties
>
>
> by Petra von Morstein, Professor Emeritus, Calgary University, Canada
>
> Abstract Workshop
>
> At the beginning of the workshop I shall outline
> problems of self-identity in the context of extreme
> experiences and in the context of (loss of) cognitive and moral
> orientation. From there I shall offer and invite relevant stories
> from which to generate questions, insights and (practical) life
> decisions.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> For additional information contact:
>
>    * Shlomit Schuster -- phone: 02-6795090
>    * Ofra Regev -- phone 03-5290420
>

Hi everyone!

	 As promised, I include the summary of last week's discussion on
alienation. I also include the announcement for our next meeting on March
4th, "What is the source of morality?" and some relevant quotes where you
may recognize the position that you favor.

	 Best, as always,

	 Bernard


Summary of "Can we overcome alienation?"

The feeling of alienation is painful;  hence it ought to be overcome.
Marx’ thought opened the discussion as it was suggested that we were
alienated from the products we manufacture. Immediately, someone objected
to this narrow understanding of alienation. Why not extend it to
psychological or even emotional dimension? Wasn’t Marx’ concept of
alienation defeated when Henry Ford designed the Model T, a car that would
be affordable to the people manning the assembly line? A number of
participants demurred at the suggestion. "What about the new assembly
lines? The sweatshops where people put together clothes they’ll never wear?"
Kierkegaard’s leap to faith was the first suggestion as to how one could
overcome alienation. A religious community and a love of a God could make
up for the alienation one incurs. There was some objections to the
suggestion, in particular, the objection that a leap to faith was an
invitation to another form of alienation. What kind of genuine exchange can
happen between an individual and his or her God?
The suggestion that gained the most support was that which advocated a
genuine knowledge and acceptance of the self. An honest recognition of who
we are, provided the encounter is satisfying, is reassuring enough to make
us feel grounded. Although almost everyone liked the solution, no one
raised the issue of self-deception. We are so eager to be satisfied with
that self that we have a motivation to be disingenuous. The possible
discovery of a lack of candor may result in a worse alienation. I thought
that the worst feeling of alienation occurred when I would discover that
the one thing I believed I could rest against was really not what I thought
it was.
We had some interesting exchange on the distinction between exclusion and
alienation. It seems possible to feel excluded from a particular group
without feeling alienation. The thought of Oldenquist offered a way of
seeing the distinction. Those, for example, who are racially or sexually
discriminated against feel both alienated and excluded. The result is a
sense of invisibility.
There were three personal experiences of alienation recounted: I told of my
experience when speaking English rather than my native French. Despite the
fact that I can express all that I wish in English, the meanings do not
always awaken the same quality of states of mind as when I express the same
words in French.
Someone also told us of her experience of going back to the Philippines to
visit her family, and of her sense of alienation finding out that her
parents were upset that she did not bring back dollars to them. Someone
else told of her experience of returning to her native New York after many
years of being away and experiencing the sentiment of alienation.
We had a bit of an exchange on existentialism, but it did not go much
further than identifying existentialism as a source of alienation.
Existential angst is a kind of painful alienation.
As we moved to pick the next topic, it was suggested that we ought to avoid
to have a topic that contains two questions like the one we had this
evening. We had tpo worry about overcoming and alienation.


******************


CAFÉ PHILO

Come all to the Eleventh Informal
Philosophical Gathering
at

LE POÈME

Prince and Elizabeth Street in Nolita
on Thursday, March 4th, 1999
between 6 and 8 PM
  (The philosophy is free; you pay for the food you order)

***

Thursday’s topic will be:



WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF MORALITY?


The gatherings are moderated by Bernard Roy, Ph.D., Department of
Philosophy, Baruch College, CUNY
General Studies Program, NYU

For more information, call Le Poème, at 941-1106
or Bernard at 387-1684, email: br8@...
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135/

What is the Source of Morality?
The following quotes are from Rachels’ The Elements of Moral Philosophy,
McGraw Hill, 1993

Morality differs in every society, and is a convenient term for socially
approved habits.
				 Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture (1934)

Take any action allow’d to be vicious: Wilful murder, for instance. Examine
it in all lights, and see if you can find that matter of fact, or real
existence, which you call vice… You can never find it, till you turn your
reflexion into your own breast, and find a sentiment of disapprobation,
which arises in you, toward that action; but ‘tis the object of feeling,
not reason.

				 David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1740)

There is no Good save obedient behavior, save the obedient will. But this
obedience is rendered not to a law or a principle which can be known
beforehand, but only to the free, sovereign will of God. The Good consists
in always doing what God wills at any particular moment.

				 Emil Brunner, The Divine Imperative (1947)

…the precepts of the natural law are to the practical reason what the first
principles of demonstrations are to the speculative reason because both are
self-evident principles.

				 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, II, 94, 2nd

But he age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and
calculators, has succeeded.

				 Burke, Reflection on the Revolution in France, 1790

The achievement of his own happiness is man’s highest moral purpose.

				 Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, 1961

Given our present perspective, it is amazing that Christian ethics down
through the centuries could have accepted almost unanimously the
sententious doctrine that "the end does not justify the means." We have to
ask now, "If the end does not justify the means, what does?" The answer is
obviously, "Nothing!"

J.  Fletcher, Moral Responsibility, 1967

What is the source of our morality?

The utilitarian doctrine is that happiness is desirable, and the only thing
desirable, as an end; all other things being desirable as means to that end.

				 J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism, 1861

Man does not strive after happiness; only the Englishman does that.

				 Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, 1889

…I should never act in such a way that I could not also will that my maxim
should be a universal law.

				 Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 1787

There is only one theory of punishment that is compatible with human
dignity, and that is the theory of Kant.

				 Karl Marx, New York Daily Tribune, 2/18/53

The concepts of obligation, duty—moral obligation and moral duty, that is
to say—and of what is morally right and wrong, and of the moral sense of
"ought," ought to be jettisoned…It would be a great improvement if, instead
of "morally wrong,’ one always named a genus such as "untruthful,"
"unchaste," "unjust."

				 G.E.M. Anscombe, Modern Moral Philosophy, 1958

******
Some possible sources:

· Reason
· Authority
· A moral sense
· God
· Consequences
· Culture
· Sentiments
· Desire to reach a moral ideal
· Objective moral standards

Hi everyone,

	 In my last message, I announced the next cafe-philo for Thursday, February
28th, a non-existing date for 1999. Thank you, Alan, for eyeing the
metaphysical trauma. The "real" date is Thursday, February 18th, 1999. I
apologize for overcrowding your mail boxes.

	 Here is the summary, as promised.

	 Best,

	 Bernard


****************



Summary of "What is Self?"
Thursday, February 4th, 1999

The attendance was copious, and the participants quite generous with their
views and questions.  I had a great time, and many of you with whom I was
able to chat after the café-philo conveyed to me an equal sense of
satisfaction.
The discussion began with a remark about the phrasing of the question. Why
was there not a definite article? I thought that the presence of a definite
article might load the dice, so to speak. A participant objected, and asked
why it was not pluralized. He claimed that he held a Homeric view of the
self, where the self consists of various parts, each vying for the
attainment of a particular virtue. From that point, it seemed inevitable
that someone would raise the possibility of no self. It was suggested that
someone who subscribes to a materialist view of the mind cannot, at the
same time, believe that there is a self, above and beyond whatever
characterizes the brain. It was thought that a materialist is cornered in
an ever changing view of the self. So, there is no permanent or subsiding
self.
There was a lot of going back and forth about materialism (and dualism);
some felt that even the most ardent materialist had to smuggle some
spiritualism through the back door. Are not emergent properties more
idealistic than materialistic? Most everyone seem to agree that if there
was a self it had to be a spiritual or soul like nature. Some labeled that
self a consciousness or awareness. I brought Hume into the fray as a way to
illustrate the frustration involved in identifying a unifying principle of
the self. We are a bundle of distinct experiences, unable to find the tie
that keeps it together.
From materialism we shifted to the thought experiment of brain transplants.
If I exchanged my brain with yours, would you be me and I you? A pair of
participants said that recipients of organ transplants had reported that
they experienced phenomena that they could not identify as part of their
history. Everyone, including myself, admitted that there was a problem with
the thought experiment; to remember (or recall) someone else’s experience
does not have the same quality as remembering one’s own experience.
From brain transplants, we moved to the emotional dimension of the self.
Could we focus our search on our loves and hatreds, envies, etc.? I liked
the suggestion; we are who we love and hate, who we envy, etc. Someone
pointed to one of the quotes that was circulated at the beginning; the
quote was from Mbiti, the African philosopher: "I am because we are; and
since we are, therefore I am." The idea of finding one’s self in a
community seemed appealing to a lot of participants. It was suggested that
this was a better perspective than the Cartesian "cogito."
As the end was nearing, and with it, the selection of our next meeting’s
topic, I was not surprised that the question, "How can we overcome
alienation?" was voted.

Best,
Bernard

Bernard Roy
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
Baruch College of The City University of New York--212-387-1684
General Studies Program
New York University--212-998-7120
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135

Hi everyone,

	 You will be receiving the summary of our last discussion, "What is Self,"
very shortly. In the meantime, I am attaching and copying the announcement
for our next Cafe Philo, "How can we overcome alienation?" Please mark your
calendar; it will be on Thursday, February 28th, between 6 and 8 PM at Le
Poeme (Prince and Elizabeth).

	 I look forward to seeing you all then and there.

	 Best,

	 Bernard


*SOCRATIC DIALOGUE ON FRIENDSHIP*
P.S. : A number of you has asked me when I would facilitate the next
Socratic Dialogue on friendship. I generally facilitate one a month, but if
at least 5 of you are interested, I can have one this Saturday (Feb., 13)
between 8:30 and 4:30. Call me at 212-387-1684 or 212-686-3285, as soon as
possible, if you are interested. The dialogues are real eye openers on
friendship; I regularly get calls or emails from past participants,
praising and commenting on the experience.
There is a $45 per person fee.


*************************************

  CAFÉ PHILO

Come all to the Tenth Informal
Philosophical Gathering
at

LE POÈME

Prince and Elizabeth Street in Nolita
on Thursday, February 18th, 1999
between 6 and 8 PM
  (The philosophy is free; you pay for the food you order)

***

Thursday’s topic will be:



How Can We Overcome Alienation?


The gatherings are moderated by Bernard Roy, Ph.D., Department of
Philosophy, Baruch College, CUNY
General Studies Program, NYU

For more information, call Le Poème, at 941-1106
or Bernard at 387-1684, email: br8@...
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135/

****************************************************************

Some quotes:

Can we overcome alienation?

Alienate: v.t. 1. To make indifferent or averse; estrange: He has alienated
his entire family. 2. To turn away; transfer or divert: to alienate funds
from their intended purpose.
					 Random House dictionary

Philosophical Consciencism is that philosophical standpoint which taking
its start from the present content of the African experience, indicates the
way in which progress is forged out of the conflict in that conscience.

					 Kwame Nkrumah, Consciencism

The rational nature has been created so excellently that even though it is
a changeable thing, it may still gain happiness by clinging to the
unchangeable good who is God, the most high.

					 Augustine, City of God, 12,4

You are the music while the music lasts.

					 T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets: The Dry Salvages, V

By seeing the multitude of people around it [the self], by being busied
with all sorts of worldly affairs, by being wise to the ways of the world,
such a person forgets himself, in a divine sense forgets his own name,
dares not believe in himself, finds being himself too risky, finds it much
easier and safer to be like others, to become a copy, a number, along with
the crowd.

					 Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death

All these consequences result from the fact that the worker is related to
the product of his labor as to an alien object. For on this premise it is
clear that the more the worker spends himself, the more powerful becomes
the alien world of objects which he creates over and against himself, the
poorer he himself—his inner world—becomes, the less it belongs to him as
his own. It is the same in religion. The more man puts into God, the less
he retains himself.

Karl Marx, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have
you done to overcome him?

					 Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

The following two quotes were sent by Richard and Tudor, respectively.   I
thank them both for the submission.

Marxists define alienation as occurring when the conditions and
  products of labor have become independent of the laborors in the sense
      of being determined by market forces that have, as it were, a life of
      their own.  I wish to suggest a broader use for the term....
      Let us say provisionally that someone is alienated from C when, given
      his situation, he would normally be expected to have a sense of
      loyalty toward C but in fact does not.  He can normally be expected to
      have community loyalty if he has lived in a community for a long time,
      it has at least roughly identifiable boundaries and a name, and if he
      works there and knows its people and byways.  If he is alienated he
      does not view his community as his own and consequently does not much
      care what happens to it or what it looks like... if its deterioration
      threatens his safety or the value of his property his inclination is
      to move rather than work for improvement....  Anything to which a
      person can be loyal he can also, in principle, be alienated from, and
      conversely.... I cannot be proud or ashamed, or loyal or alienated,
      unless I somehow view the thing as mine.

      Andrew Oldenquist, "Loyalties" (Jrnl of Phil Vol. 79, #4, April 1982)




These are the last paragraphs from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's
Harvard Commencement Address,  "A World Split Apart" which created quite
a furor in the American mass-media about ten years ago.

Regards,  -Tudor

<<
Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change
if we want to save life from self-destruction. We cannot avoid revising
the fundamental definitions of human life and human society. Is it true
that man is above everything? Is there no Superior Spirit above him? Is
it right that man's life and society's activities have to be determined
by material expansion in the first place? Is it permissible to promote
such expansion to the detriment of our spiritual integrity?

If the world has not come to its end, it has approached a major turn in
history, equal in importance to the turn from the Middle Ages to the
Renaissance. It will exact from us a spiritual upsurge, we shall have to
rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life where our
physical nature will not be cursed as in the Middle Ages, but, even more
importantly, our spiritual being will not be trampled upon as in the
Modern era.

This ascension will be similar to climbing onto the next anthropologic
stage. No one on earth has any other way left but -- upward.
      --------------------------------


**********************************************

Please note instead of  Saturday 6. 3 the lecture and workshop of Prof. von
Morstein
will take place at Sunday 7. 3.

>
>  7. 3. 99--Beit Ticho Library

>  Rechov HaRav Kook 8
>  Jerusalem--6 to 9 pm.  Fee: 30 Sh.
>         Professor Petra von Morstein

            Guest lecturer from Calgary, Canada

>       Anxiety and Depression (Lecture)

>                Coffee Break

>
>         Self-identity and its Difficulties (Workshop)

For more information and reservations: 972-2-6795090, and
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5914     under "Lectures
  in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem"

   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shlomit C. Schuster. Philosophical Counselor in Private Practice.
Horkania 23, apt.2., Jerusalem 93305,  ISRAEL
The International Philosophical First-Aid Line: 972-2-6795090
E-mail: centersophon@...
The Philosophical Counseling Website:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5914
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone!

	 I thought that last evening's cafe philo was most focused and civilized.
It was also quite well attended. We had to move to the main dining room,
and I liked it. There was no huge table protecting us; this may explain the
extraordinary civility. I estimated about 40 people, from all walks of life.

	 I include a copy of the summary of yesterday's discussion, as well as the
announcement and the quotes for the next one on Feb.4. You are encouraged
to add and/or to comment to the summary or to the quotes.

	 Best regards and till next time.

	 Bernard

*******************

Summary of 1/21/99 Café Philo:
"The Selfishness or Unselfishness of Sympathy"

I estimated that there were 40 of us at last evening’s café philo. We moved
from our usual place around the rectangular table to the main dining room,
and every table was occupied, including our original large rectangular one.
I thought the discussion was very stimulating and remained amazingly
focused. There were no wide digressions.
The gathering started with Will reading a passage from S. Lem’s novel, His
Master’s Voice. Lem denies the possibility of sympathy—understood as the
feeling of others’ feeling—on the grounds that, were it possible, humankind
"would be full of raw, bowel-torn howling." (199)
There were no immediate reaction to the reading, so we discussed whether a
distinction between sympathy and empathy was tenable. I am not quite sure
whether we reached a consensus on that issue; at least it’s not clear to
me. One of the two words suggests some detachment, that is an exchange of
an intellectual nature; the other suggests an attachment, a sharing of
feelings, an emotional atmosphere. Was it that one could cry out of
sympathy, but not out of empathy? There was some discussion about the
etymology of the word ‘sympathy’: ‘sym-‘ and ‘pathos’, the (harmonious)
mixing of feelings or passions.
We grazed at the issue of the voluntariness or involuntariness of sympathy.
Most agreed that sympathy was involuntary.
The discussion then turned to the causes of sympathetic reactions. Are they
learned or innate? Sympathy was analogized to a trigger; it is occasioned
by an external emotional state, but has no traceable causal relation to it.
This seems to confirm Lem’s position.
Someone made a connection between our innate language ability, our
sympathetic reactions and our survival instinct. We possess, as a species,
these faculties so we can survive. The fact that we possess these faculties
suggests that we are essentially social animals and that we strive for
community. Our sympathy extends to humanity. The question then arose as to
whether we could be concerned as individuals about the survival of our
species. There was no consensus. Some spoke of a continuum, we start with a
narrow range of sympathies, and then we gradually widen the range. Others
spoke of social groups defined by the width of the range of their
sympathies; it was left unclear whether those groups were able to interact.
This last line of thought took us to the issue of selfishness. Admirers of
Ayn Rand spoke up, and expressed their skepticism about the possibility of
altruism. We dwelt on that issue, discussing the morality of selfishness.
Do we need a distinction between self-interest and selfishness? Selfishness
suggests excess; self-interest is unseparable from us. Someone suggested
that our selfishness was kept in check by a pervading sense of Rawlsian
justice. Someone else suggested that human beings are inherently "good." It
was telling that the room was about equally divided on whether altruism
(genuine sympathy) was possible.

Thank you. You are encouraged to add and /or to comment on this summary.



********************

CAFÉ PHILO

Come all to the Ninth Informal
Philosophical Gathering
at

LE POÈME

Prince and Elizabeth Street in Nolita
on Thursday, February 4th, 1999
between 6 and 8 PM
  (The philosophy is free; you pay for the food you order)

***

Thursday’s topic will be:



What is self?


The gatherings are moderated by Bernard Roy, Ph.D., Department of
Philosophy, Baruch College, CUNY
General Studies Program, NYU

For more information, call Le Poème, at 941-1106
or Bernard at 387-1684, email: br8@...
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135/
  What is self?

18.  The wise one (the Atman, the Self) is not born, nor dies.
        This one has not come from anywhere, has not become anyone.
        Unborn, constant, eternal, primeval, this one
        Is not slain when the body is slain. (45)
23.  The Self is not to be obtained by instruction,
        Nor by intellect, nor by much learning,
        He is to be obtained only by the one whom he chooses;
        To such a one that Self reveals his own person. (46)

Know that the self (atman) as riding in a chariot,
The body as a chariot. (46)

					 The Upanisads
					 A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy

n Your majesty, if you came in a chariot, declare to me the chariot. Pray
your majesty, is the pole the chariot?
n Nay, verily, Bhante.
n Is the axle the chariot?
n […]
n Pray, your majesty, are pole, axle, wheels, chariot-body, banner-staff,
yoke, reins, and goad unitedly the chariot?
n Nay, verily, Bhante.
n Is it, then, your majesty, something else besides pole, axle, wheels,
chariot-body, banner-staff, reins, and goad which is the chariot?
n Nay, verily, Bhante.
n Your majesty, although I question very closely, I fail to discover any
chariot. Verily now, your majesty, the word chariot is a mere empty sound.
What chariot is there here? Your majesty, you speak a falsehood, a lie:
there is no chariot. (281)

					 Buddhist Milindapanha (ibid.)


13.  The embodied self who has controlled his nature, having renounced all
actions by the mind (inwardly), dwells at ease in the city of nine gates [2
eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, the mouth, and the two organs of excretion and
generation], neither working nor causing work to be done.
14.  The Sovereign Self does not create for the people agency, nor does He
act. Nor does He connect works with their fruits. It is nature that works
out these. (121)

					 Bhagavad-Gita (ibid.)


But what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts,
understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, and also imagines,
and has sensory perceptions.

					 Descartes, Meditation II, (Cottingham)


And as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past
Action or Thought, so far reaches the Identity of that Person; it is the
same self now it was then; and ‘tis by the same self with this present one
that now reflects on it, that that Action was done. (2,27,9)

					 John Locke
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

As regards the ‘self’, it will be as well to distinguish from the
appearance of the self and from consciousness. The ‘self’ makes real
physical identity, and the appearance of the self, when accompanied by
truth, adds to it personal identity. So, not wishing to say that personal
identity extends no further than memory, still less would I say that the
‘self’, or physical identity, depends upon it.[…] Thus, consciousness is
not the only means of establishing personal identity, and its deficiencies
may be made up by other people’s accounts or even by other indications.
(2,27,9)

					 G.W.Leibniz
					 New Essays on Human Understanding

The self is nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions.
(1,4,6)

					 David Hume
					 A Treatise on Human Nature

But first we must ask: what is woman? "Tota mulier in utero," says one,
"woman is a womb." But in speaking of certain women, connoisseurs declare
that they are not women, although they are equipped with a uterus like the
rest. All agree in recognizing the fact that females exist in the human
species; today as always they make up about half of humanity. And yet we
are told that femininity is in danger; we are exhorted to be women, remain
women, become women. It would appear, then, that every female human being
is not necessarily a woman; to be so considered she must share in that
mysterious and threatened reality known as femininity. Is this attribute
something secreted by the ovaries? Or is it a Platonic essence, a product
of the philosophic imagination.

					 Simone de Beauvoir
					 The Second Sex

Existence precedes essence.

					 Existentialist motto

I am because we are; and since we are, therefore I am.

					 J.S. Mbiti, quoted by Iroegbu’s
					 Metaphysics, The Kpim of Philosophy

Hi Everybody,
I thank the friend who made me aware that the format of
the former message about  the ISPPI and other activities of this season
was impossible to retrieve.  I apologize.  So, for everybody who
couldn't retrieve or read the former announcement I send it now again in
text only format.
Thanks for the co-operation!
Shlomit Schuster

-------------------------
ISPPI AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
January-March 1999

The lectures held at  the Keren Heinrich Boell, Nachlat Benjamin 14, Tel
Aviv, are under the auspices of  ISPPI--The Israeli Society for
Philosophical Practice and Counseling.
The additional activities are organized by the Sophon Center for
Philosophical Practice. For more information on all activities contact
Shlomit Schuster 02-6795090.
The events will be advertised by the Friday papers Ha-ier or Col Ha-Ier,
Yerushalyim, The Jerusalem Post and  The International Herald Tribune.
Make sure to check these newspapers or call  02-6795090 in case
of  last minute changes in the program.  The latest updates on these
events are also available through The Philosophical Counseling Website
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5914
(see under Lectures in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem)
All activities are in Hebrew with exception of those marked with a *.
These will be in English.
------------------------------------
  28. 1. 99--Keren Heinrich Boell
  Tel Aviv--8 pm.     FREE
	 An Introduction to the Activities of ISPPI
	 Shlomit Schuster (Ph.D.)
------------------------------------
10. 2. 99--Keren Heinrich Boell
Tel Aviv--8 pm.     FREE
	  Ora Gruengard (Ph.D.)
 	  Talking with Hamlet
-------------------------------------
  25. 2. 99--Keren Heinrich Boell
  Tel Aviv--8 pm.    FREE
 	 Shlomit Schuster (Ph.D.)
 	 Hope Now and Radical Counseling*
-------------------------------------
  9. 3. 99--Keren Heinrich Boell
Tel Aviv--8 pm.     FREE
	 Professor Petra von Morstein
	 Anxiety and Depression*
------------------------------------
18. 3. 99--Keren Heinrich Boell
  Tel Aviv--8 pm.     FREE
 	 Lydia Amir (Ph.D.)
 	 Humor as a Worldview
-----------------------------------
  30. 3. 99--Keren Heinrich Boell
  Tel Aviv--8 pm.    FREE
 	 Ofra Regev (M.A.)
 	 Philosophical Counseling and the Question of Foucault
----------------------------------
  6. 3. 99--Beit Ticho Library
  Rechov HaRav Kook 8
  Jerusalem--6 to 9 pm.   30 Sh.
 	 Professor Petra von Morstein
 	 Anxiety and Depression (Lecture)*
                Coffee Break
 	 Self-identity and its Difficulties (Workshop)*
  ---------------------------------
14. 2. 99 &  21. 3. 99
Cafe Bookstore Tmol Shilshom,
Yoel Salomon 5
Jerusalem--7  pm. 15 Sh.
	 Shlomit Schuster (Ph.D.)
	 Philosophical Cafe: Discussion on
	 topics chosen by visitors to Tmol Shilshom.
---------------------------------------

Hi Shlomit

Attached message could not be retrieved.

Regards, Ora
     -----Original Message-----
     From: Shlomit Schuster <msshstar@...>
     To: Phil-counsel list <Phil-counsel@onelist.com>
     Date: 19 éðåàø 1999 08:53
     Subject: [phil-counsel] ISPPI LECTURES 1999



     file:///D|/WINDOWS/lectisp99.htm

file:///D|/WINDOWS/lectisp99.htm

VIRUS ALERT





>>From: Paul Grayson <paul.grayson@...>
>>Subject: Virus alert
>>
>>Margo Marshak sent a virus warning this morning, which I'm passing along to
>>you:
>>
>>>Subject: New Virus
>>>
>>>I received this from a friend am passing this along. Please take note:
>>>
>>>                                  Please take note of email messages with
>>>the titles as below. If
>>>                              you receive one do not open it but just
>>>delete it.
>>>
>>>                              If you receive an e-mail titled: JOIN THE
>>>CREW or for PENPALS
>>>                              DO NOT open it! It will erase EVERYTHING on
>>>your hard drive!
>>>
>>>                              Send this letter out to as many people as
>>>you can. This is a new
>>>                              virus and not many people know about it!
>>>This information was
>>>                              received this morning by IBM. Please share
>>>it with anyone that
>>>                              might access the internet!! PENPAL appears
>>>to be a friendly letter
>>>                              asking you if you are interested in a
>>>penpal, but by the time you read
>>>                              this letter it is TOO late. The Trojan
>>>horse virus will have already
>>>                              infected the boot sector of your hard
>>>drive, destroying all the data
>>>                              present. It is a self-replicating virus,
>>>and once the message is read it
>>>                              will  AUTOMATICALLY forward itself to
>>>anyone who's e-mail
>>>                              address is present in your box! This virus
>>>will destroy your hard drive
>>>                              and holds the potential to DESTROY the
>>>hard drive of anyone whose
>>>                              mail is in your box and whose mail is in
>>>their box and so on and on!
>>>                              So delete any message titled PENPAL or
>>>JOIN THE CREW. This
>>>                              virus can do major DAMAGE to worldwide
>>>networks!
>>>
>>>                              PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS
>>>AND
>>>                              PEOPLE IN YOUR MAILBOXES.
>>>
>>>                              AOL HAS SAID THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS
>>>VIRUS AND
>>>                              THERE IS NO REMEDY FOR THIS. FORWARD IT TO
>>>ALL
>>>                              YOUR ON-LINE FRIENDS A.S.A.P.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>



Bernard Roy
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
Baruch College of The City University of New York
General Studies Program
New York University
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135

Hi everyone,

	 I attach the announcement for the next cafe philo that will be held on
Thursday, Jan. 21 at Le Poeme (Prince and Elizabeth), between 6 and 8 pm.

	 Best,

	 Bernard

	 ***************************

CAFÉ PHILO

Come all to the Eighth Informal
Philosophical Gathering
at

LE POÈME

Prince and Elizabeth Street in Nolita
on Thursday, January 21st, 1999
between 6 and 8 PM
  (The philosophy is free; you pay for the food you order)

***

Thursday’s topic will be:



The Selfishness or Unselfishness of Sympathy


The gatherings are moderated by Bernard Roy, Ph.D., Department of
Philosophy, Baruch College, CUNY
General Studies Program, NYU

For more information, call Le Poème, at 941-1106
or Bernard at 387-1684, email: br8@...
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135/

		 ********************************

Thursday, January 21st, 1999
Le Poème - Café Philo




The Selfishness or Unselfishness of Sympathy



What is compassion , but a kind of fellow-feeling in our hearts for
another’s misery, which compels us to come to his help by every means in
our power? Now this emotion is the servant of reason, when compassion is
shown without detriment to justice, when it is a matter of giving to the
needy or of pardoning the repentant. Cicero, with his unique mastery of
words, did not hesitate to call compassion a virtue, while the Stoics did
not scruple to class it a vice.  (IX, 5)

					 Augustine, City of God


Griefe, for the Calamity of another, is PITTY; and ariseth from the
imagination that the like calamity may befall himselfe; and therefore is
called also COMPASSION, and in the phrase of this present time a
FELLOW-FEELING: And therefore for Calamity arriving from great wickedness,
the best men have the least Pitty; and for the same Calamity, those who
have least Pitty, that think themselves least obnoxious (vulnerable) to the
same.

						 Hobbes, Leviathan, I, 6


What is that to me? There are few occasions, when this question is not
pertinent: And had it that universal, infallible influence supposed, it
would turn into ridicule every composition, and almost every conversation,
which contain any praise or censure of men or manners. (V, I, 175)

In general, it is certain, that, wherever we go, whatever we reflect on or
converse about, everything still presents us with a view of human happiness
or misery, and excites in our breast a sympathetic movement of pleasure or
uneasiness. (V, II, 180)

When a person stutters, and pronounces with difficulty, we even sympathize
with this trivial uneasiness, and suffer for him. And it is a rule in
criticism, that every combination of syllables or letters, which gives pain
to the organs of speech in the recital, appears also from a species of
sympathy harsh and disagreeable to the ear. Nay, when we run over a book
with our eye, we are sensible of such unharmonious composition; because we
still imagine, that a person recites it to us, and suffers from the
pronunciation of these jarring sounds. So delicate is our sympathy! (V, II,
182)

Sympathy, as we shall allow, is much fainter than our concern for
ourselves, and sympathy with persons remote from us much fainter than that
with persons near and contiguous; but for this very reason it is necessary
for us, in our calm judgements and discourse concerning the characters of
men, to neglect all these differences, and render our sentiments more
public and social. (V, II, 186)

Now as these advantages (a due medium determined by utility) are enjoyed by
the person possessed of the character, it can never be self-love which
renders the prospect of them agreeable to us, the spectators, and prompts
our esteem and approbation. No force of imagination can convert us into
another person, and make us fancy, that we, being that person, reap benefit
from those valuable qualities, which belong to him. Or if it did, no
celerity of imagination could immediately transport us back, into
ourselves, and make us love and esteem the person, as different from us.
[…] All suspicion, therefore, of selfish regards, is here totally excluded.
[…] The ideas of happiness, joy, triumph, prosperity, are connected with
every circumstance of his character, and diffuse over our minds a pleasing
sentiment of sympathy and humanity. (VI, I 191)

Hume, An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals

Greetings to everyone,

I'll be facilitating a Socratic Dialogue on the question of "What is
frienship?" on Saturday, January 9th. It's an all day affair (from 8:30 to
6:00)and there is a $45.00 fee, but the day's travail has many rewards.
Call me at 387-1684 or reply by email, if you're interested. Space is
limited to 12 participants on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Best,

Bernard

*****************

ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR A FORTHCOMING

SOCRATIC DIALOGUE

ON THE QUESTION OF

WHAT IS FRIENDSHIP?

ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 9TH, 1999
AT 111 EAST 18TH STREET
New York, NY 10010
From 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM

A Socratic dialogue is an informal, yet structured, dialogue, during which
8 to 12 participants attempt to reach, through consensus and dissent, an
experienced understanding of a widely used concept.

Program:

8:30 - 9:00  Introduction
9:00 - 10.00  Listing of individual experiences of friendship
10:10 - 11:30  Selection of exemplar
11:40 - 12:45  Analysis of exemplar
12:45 - 1:45  Lunch break
2:00 - 3:15  Questioning of exemplar’s experience
3:30 - 4:45  Selection of the part that makes the
                      exemplar’s experience one of friendship
5:00 - 6:00  What is friendship?

Space is limited to 12 participants. Please contact Bernard Roy at
212-387-1684 or bernard_roy@... for registration. There is a
$45.00 fee.

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all having wonderful holidays. Please accept my best wishes
for the new year.

I am copying and attaching the annoucement for the next cafe philo, which
will take place on thursday, January 7th, 1999. Our topic of discussion
will be: "Is there value in excess?"
I look forward to seeing you there.

Best,

Bernard

*************************************

CAFÉ PHILO

Come all to the Seventh Informal
Philosophical Gathering
at

LE POÈME

Prince and Elizabeth Street in Nolita
on Thursday, January 7th, 1999
between 6 and 8 PM
  (The philosophy is free; you pay for the food you order)

***

Thursday’s topic will be:



IS THERE VALUE IN EXCESS?


The gatherings are moderated by Bernard Roy, Ph.D., Department of
Philosophy, Baruch College, CUNY
General Studies Program, NYU

For more information, call Le Poème, at 941-1106
or Bernard at 387-1684, email: br8@...
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135/

********************************

  Thursday, January 7th, 1999

IS THERE VALUE IN EXCESS?

What is the purpose of making clothing? To keep out the cold in winter and
the heat in summer. Therefore the way to make clothing is to design
something that will provide warmth in winter and coolness in summer.
Whatever is merely decorative and does not contribute to these ends should
be avoided.
What is the purpose of building houses? To keep out the wind and cold in
winter and the heat and rain in summer, and to provide protection against
thieves. Whatever is merely decorative and does not contribute to these
ends should be avoided.
[…]
Therefore Mo Tzu said: To do away with needless expenditures is the way of
the sage kings and the source of great benefit to the world.
					 Mo Tzu, Basic Writings
					 Translation, Burton Watson

Yoga is harmony. Not for him who eats too much, or for him who eats too
little; not for him who sleeps too little, or for him who sleeps too much.
(6,16)
They [evil men] are bound by hundreds of vain hopes. Anger and lust is
their refuge; and they strive by unjust means to amass wealth for their own
cravings. (16,12)
					 Bhagavad Gita
					 Translation, Juan Mascaró

Do not covet your neighbour’s household: you must not covet your
neighbour’s wife, his slave, his slave-girl, his ox, his donkey, or
anything that belongs to him.
					 Exodus, (20, 17)

When riches increase, so does the number of parasites living off them; and
what advantage has the owner, except to feast his eyes on them? (5,11)
Moreover, it is a gift of God that everyone to whom he has granted wealth
and riches and the power to enjoy them should accept his lot and rejoice in
his labour. (5,19)

Second, he [person of understanding] won’t entrust the condition and
nurture of his body to the irrational pleasure of the beast within or turn
his life in that direction, but neither will he make health his aim or
assign first place to being strong, healthy, and beautiful, unless he
happens to acquire moderation as a result. […] Will he also keep order and
consonance in his acquisition of money, with that same end in view? Or,
even though he isn’t dazzled by the size of the majority into accepting
their idea of blessed happiness, will he increase his wealth without limit
and so have unlimited evils? Not in my view.
					 Plato, The Republic, IX, 591c-e
					 Translation, Grube and Reeve



Currency was intended to be a means of exchange, whereas interest
represents an increase in the currency itself. Hence its name (tokos,
offspring), for each animal produces its like, and interest is currency
born of currency. And so of all types of business this is the most contrary
to nature.
					 Aristotle, Politics, I, X, 1258a38
					 Translation, T. A. Sinclair

If your debtor be in straits, grant him a delay until he can discharge his
debt; but if you waive the sum as alms it will be better for you, if you
but know it.
The Koran, (2:280)
					 Translation, N. J. Dawood


Omelet Louis XV (for 12)

24 ortolans birds 		 3 tbs. Vintage Port
18 Pheasant eggs 		 1 tbs. Muscat wine
6 whole fresh black truffles 	 3 tbs. truffle juice
2 tbs. fresh goose liver 	 3 oz. Beef marrow
6 oz. Fresh mushrooms 	 2 tbs. chicken mousse
6 tbs. heavy cream
6 tbs. meat glaze
E.  Nignon, Eloges de la Cuisine Française


Heated socks.
					 Catalogue for Hammacher Schlemmer



Toy car, $35,000.
					 Catalogue for FAO Schwartz

Greetings to all,

	 The next cafe philo will be held on Tuesday, December 22 instead of the
usual Thursday on account of the holiday.

CAFÉ PHILO

Come all to the Sixth Informal
Philosophical Gathering
at

LE POÈME

Prince and Elizabeth Street in Nolita
on Tuesday (exceptionally because of the holiday,)
December 22nd, 1998
between 6 and 8 PM
  (The philosophy is free; you pay for the food you order)

***

Tuesday’s topic will be:



IS THERE A REASON FOR SUFFERING?


The gatherings are moderated by Bernard Roy, Ph.D., Department of
Philosophy, Baruch College, CUNY
General Studies Program, NYU

For more information, call Le Poème, at 941-1106
or Bernard at 387-1684, email: br8@...
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135/

Best,

bernard


Bernard Roy
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
Baruch College of The City University of New York
General Studies Program
New York University
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1135

Oops!  I see that what I just re-posted was also slightly incomplete, due to
a "slip of the mouse" in selecting the text.

Here's the last paragraph in its entirety:

4.  Do not, under any circumstances, respond to messages that you
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somebody in the audience who is talking during a concert.

--
Lance Fletcher, President
The Free Lance Academy Foundation
for information send message to info@...
http://www.freelance-academy.org
lance@...

Ronit Klemens wrote me privately to report that the copy of the
welcome message that she received was corrupted and incomplete.
In case others had a similar problem, I am reposting the entire
message with apologies for the possible redundancy.

Lance

=================================================
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find offensive by posting messages of protest or rebuke on the
list.  To the others on the list this is just as offensive as the

originally offending post.  It is like shouting, "BE QUIET!" to
somebody in the audien

--
Lance Fletcher, President
The Free Lance Academy Foundation
for information send message to info@...
http://www.freelance-academy.org
lance@...