Introducing

The Hong Kong Philosophy Cafe

Frequently Asked Questions (and answers)

General information on the branches

The Hong Kong Philosophy Cafe has held monthly meetings since September of 1999. For the first thirteen months, meetings were held at Open Kitchen in Wan Chai, organized by Steve Palmquist. In July of 2000 an Executive Committee was formed to assist with implementing the vision of establishing and overseeing the operation of multiple local "branches" of the HKPC. Starting in October of 2000 this process began with the transformation of the original group into the "Kowloon Branch", held at Curtain Up in the HK Cultural Centre, Tsim Tsa Tsui (founded by Steve Palmquist), and the setting up of a new, "Fringe Branch", held at Fringe Club in Central (founded by Roy Butler). In March of 2001 a third branch was set up to conduct monthly meetings in Chinese (initially organized by a committee). In December of 2003, two new branches were started: a French Branch, held at the Alliance Francaise in Jordan (founded by Eric Sacher), and the Happy Friday Branch, held initially at Zenses in Central (founded by Clifford Setyono).

Meeting announcements and occasional monthly notices from the Executive Committee are posted to the HKPC's email announcements list. If you would like to receive such news relating to the HKPC as it appears, simply send the message "subscribe" to HKphilosophycafe@yahoogroups.com, or write to philosophycafe@yahoo.com and say you want to be added to the mailing list. The Executive Committee also sponsors an MSN Community; to subscribe, click here and follow the instructions; contact Yann Chambrier for assistance if you have any trouble getting in.

The current meeting details for the five branches are as follows:

Kowloon Branch: Organized by Alan Taylor, meets in the second half of each month at Museum Cafe (first floor of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Salisbury Road, TST).

Fringe Branch: Organized by a committee of ExCo members, meets on the second Tuesday of each month in the Fringe Club Fotogalerie, Central.

Chinese Branch: Organized by Steve Palmquist, meeting venue varies, as does the timing of meetings (less than monthly, as introducers become available).

French Branch: Organized by Eric Sacher, meets at Alliance Francaise, 52 Jordan Road, Kowloon ((less than monthly, as introducers become available).

Happy Friday Branch: Organized by Clifford Setyono, meets at Q8, 8 Queen’s Road Central, on the fourth Friday of each month.

 

For more information on any of the branches, please contact the current branch organizer.

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Kowloon Branch: October 2000 – June 2003

To read summaries of the meetings organized by Steve, just click on the highlighted topic, below. Clicking on the date will take you to the formal announcement giving details of the meeting time, place, etc., for that particular meeting. Summaries are written and/or edited by Steve Palmquist, with assistance from others, as/when specified. The Kowloon Branch also distributes Guidelines for Introducers and Guidelines for Moderators to assist those who participate in either of these two ways.

Meetings of the Kowloon Branch, held at Museum Cafe, in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, from April 2002 onwards:

·         18 June 2003: Toward a Culture of Inquiry: David Bohm’s model of dialogue

·         27 May 2003: Is the Orthodox (Byzantine) path to wisdom still viable today?

·         29 April 2003: Face Masks

·         31 March 2003: Is intelligence the path to wisdom?

·         26 February 2003: The ancient quarrel continues: Are poetry and philosophy inseparable or irreconcilable?

·         27 January 2003: The truth, the whole truth or anything but the truth? Problems with DNA testing and genetic counseling

·         16 December 2002: Is life about the search for happiness?

·         25 November 2002: Do we use language or does language use us?

·         30 October 2002: Is democracy an illusion?

·         24 September 2002: The philosophy of coincidence

·         26 August 2002: Is prayer just wishful thinking?

·         31 July 2002: Anarchy: Is private ownership public theft?

·         19 June 2002: Does it make sense to believe in a soul?

·         29 May 2002: Why do people fall in love with ideas?

·         23 April 2002: Self-identity and survival: Are we more than our personality?

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Meetings of the Kowloon Branch, held at Curtain Up in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, from October 2000 through March of 2002:*

·         October 2000: Can sports be an alternative to religion?

·         November 2000: Is it natural to be civilised?

·         December 2000: Does compulsory insurance violate human rights?

·         January 2001: When should we trust?

·         February 2001: How does consciousness emerge?

·         March 2001: Rigour vs. insight: Two perspectives on philosophising

·         April 2001: Power: How much is too much?

·         May 2001: Is sexism inevitable?

·         June 2001: Religion: Opium for the masses or headache for the mighty?

·         4 February 2002:* Does it make sense to talk about nothing?

·         25 February 2002: Are computer viruses a form of life?

·         11 March 2002: What is the proper response to terror?

*Note: Summaries are not available for the six-month period when the organizer, Steve Palmquist, was on sabbatical, from July 2001 through January 2002. During that time meetings were organized by Austin Caffrey.

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Meetings of the "original" HKPC, held at Open Kitchen in Wan Chai (complete list), from September 1999 through September 2000:

·         June 1999: Report on the preliminary meeting (based on notes written by Grace Chan)

·         September 1999: What makes a family? (based on notes written by Grace Chan)

·         October 1999: Marriage--what for?

·         November 1999: Can we ever really be free? (based on notes written by Grace Chan)

·         December 1999: Does everything happen for a reason?

·         January 2000: Are men and women really that different?

·         February 2000: What is the value of silence? (based on notes written by Grace Chan)

·         March 2000: Are there any absolutes?

·         April 2000: Can love be measured in time? (written by Roy Butler)

·         May 2000: Technology now

·         June 2000: The critical importance of philosophy to human life

·         July 2000: Is music the language of the universe? (May the force be with you!)

·         August 2000: What makes work meaningful? (written by Guy Lown)

·         September 2000: How meaningful is cultural identity? A Taoist approach (written by Guy Lown)

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Miscellaneous news items about the HKPC

Steve Palmquist has written an article on the HKPC for the South China Morning Post, published on 30 April 2002. Click here to read a copy of the prepublication version. (The published version appeared in an edited form, but with only a few minor changes of substance.) Several previous articles about the HKPC have also appeared in the same newspaper.

Steve has been interviewed twice by Hugh Chiverton on the local Hong Kong Today radio progarm (RTHK Radio 3). You can listen to the interviews by clicking on the following dates: 18 July 2000 (go to clip 7, starting at 16:50) and 1 March 2001 (go to clip 7, starting at 32:50). More recently, he was interviewed by Melanie Homer on Radio 3's "Lunchbeat" program, 10 April 2002. In addition, excerpts and interviews from the September 2000 meeting were featured on a subsequent edition of the "I Love the World" ("Ngau Oi Saai Gaai") program on Radio 1, produced by Jace Au.

In May of 2000, 20 members of the HKPC email announcements list responded to a questionnaire. By clicking on the highlighted words in this sentence, you can read the questionnaire on its own, as well as a synopsis of the responses and the full texts of the responses (with a few personal comments omitted).

 

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Links to other philosophy cafes around the world:

List of Philosophy Cafes in Paris

List of Philosophy Cafes in other parts of France

Cafephiloweb (France)

List of Philosophy Cafes around the world (outside of France)

Philosophy Cafes in and around Vancouver, Canada

Fremantle, Australia (sponsored by the local city council!)

London Cafe Philo (obituary)

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This page was last updated on 28 November 2007.

Back to the main map of Steve Palmquist's web site.