Edinburgh University Philosophy Society

Fourth year students! PPLS wants your help in completing the National Student Survey (NSS). This is an important way for us to receive feedback on our programmes. We want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly, as it’s the best way for us to see what’s going well, and where we need to improve. We need to have a reasonable response rate to receive detailed results, and we only need 35 more responses to do that! Please help us reach that milestone so then we get to see your and your friends’ responses. Thank you!

Call for papers! Submit by March 20th for a chance to be featured in Pense, our philosophy journal.

PhilSoc is seeking two Editors-in-Chief for our journal Pense! This is a great opportunity to get some experience and insight into the process of editing a journal and is a great addition to any CV.

Apply by sending your CV and a brief personal introduction to [email protected]. Any questions can also be forwarded there. Hope to see you apply!

Our social this week is a morning coffee/study/chill sesh in Black Medicine this Sunday (17/11) at 10am! Bond with your fellow philsoccers over the trials amd tribulations of Week 10.

Halloween may only be one day, but its spirit (see what i did there?) lives on over the weekend. Come join us watching Shallow Grave in 40 George Square theatre B on 03/11 at 14:00.

(Ewan, Mr. McGregor, please save me. Save me Ewan 🥵🥵🥵)

Our lecture for this week is on meta-philosophy and being delivered by the brilliant Leonard Harris visiting from Purdue University. Abstract below 👇

Philosophy does not have a nature. All claims to the contrary are claims that belie a normative judgement – they are asserting what they want to be its nature. There is no ‘it’ hiding beneath language and consciousness waiting to be discovered and revealed through pure logic, creative reasoning or revelation. The word ‘philosophy’ has many contrary meanings spanning numerous languages and the practice of ‘philosophy as a way to life has equally as many contrary practices, from medicative self-absorption to active communal debate. Philosophers have been racist, sexist, autocratic, thieves, egomaniacs and sadist as well as benevolent monks and pious Communitarians. What, then, is philosophy? The question itself misleads.
I will offer a normative claim, openly, regarding what the nature of philosophy should be. It is not a discovery but an assertion: I contend, as a normative claim, that genuine philosophy is Philosophia nata ex conatu(philosophy as, and sourced by, strife, tenaciousness, organisms striving), ex intellectualis certamen cm sit (the result of intellectual struggle with real corporal existence), always inclusive of undue duress. Philosophies born of struggle, I contend, should include corporeality of health and avowed valuations – whether regarding epistemic, metaphysical or aesthetic claims they should always seek to admit their background assumptions, up front.

This week’s discussion group will reflect upon the historical processes that characterized much of global hegemony and the notions of civilisational progress which underlined contemporaneous colonial projects. Join us.

Date: Monday, 21st of Oct
Time: 19:00
Location: Old Bell Inn

War endures to this day—and as it ensures it grows ever more horrifying. This weeks discussion group shall be discussing the moral meanings behind the grim countenance of war. We shall examine the necessity of warfare and the ethical matters on proportionality of warfare, and attempt to apply our understandings to potential hypothetical scenarios of warfare.

 
Location: The Old Bell Inn
Date: 7th Oct, Monday
Time: 19:00

Our first proceedings event is tonight at 6pm in 9.18 40 George Square! It’s on the Extended Mind.

Ritvik’s Abstract:
The hypothesis of extended cognition (HEC) argues that some mental states can be realised through interactions between the brain and the outside world, extending beyond the ‘boundaries of skin and skull.’ (Clark & Chalmers, 1998) In this essay, I analyse arguments in favour and in opposition to HEC, (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994) (Rupert, 2004) (Sprevak, 2009) and why they fail or succeed. I argue that Sprevak is correct in identifying the radical form of HEC entailed by functionalism, but his reasons for rejecting it are insufficient, and develop a conception of a ‘radical’ HEC that may be more plausible than it initially seems.

L’enfer, c’est les autres!

Hello there, Yuyi has hijacked the PhilSoc Instagram to tell you about our upcoming production of Sartre’s “No Exit” (.exit.bedlam)! Tickets are now on sale for the nights of 4-5 April. Given how excruciatingly difficult it was to obtain the license for the show, this might well be a once-in-a-lifetime performance that none of you philosopeeps want to miss. Show your philosophical commitment by purchasing a ticket for BOTH runs 🗝️🚪

Plato’s Rave happening once again! March 28th at wee red bar (ECA) 11-3. Choons courtesy of EMsoc. Tickets available on our linktree (in bio) or on the door, first 50 are £5, then £6 after that.

For all philosophy post-grads! Casual event to meet some new people in the cc library at 6:30pm on Wednesday 6th