PHILOSOPHICAL CONVERSATIONS
What is the just society?
What is the place of happiness, individual freedom or fairness in our concept of the just society? Are these notions always compatible with each other? Plato thought that the just society was one that was ruled by the wise. Certainly we might want wise rulers but who judges wisdom among political leaders?
Date
Sat 19th January
Tutor
Mike Radford
Time
9.30am to 12.00pm
Ref
2310
Fees
£15
PHILOSOPHICAL CONVERSATIONS
What is the relationship between speech and the written word?
The interesting philosophical question is what happens to our ideas when we write them down? What is the relation between the writer and her audience? If the writer means one thing but the audience interprets the writing to mean something else, who is right? Socrates argued that, in writing, one had to use a 'one fit for all' way of communicating. Is this true?
Date
Sat 9th February
Tutor
Mike Radford
Time
9.30am to 12.00pm
Ref
2311
Fees
£15
PHILOSOPHICAL CONVERSATIONS
What is emotional intelligence?
Plato associated emotion with the passions and appetites which he saw as counterproductive to intelligent understanding. Aristotle claimed that emotional intelligence was a case of having the 'right emotion' in relation to the 'right object' and the 'right degree'. This definition is not the one that the relatively recent crop of writers has agreed. How might emotional intelligence give us a survival advantage?
