Date: June 13th, 1999
Time: 6:30pm-9:30pm
Venue: Arts Cafe, Hong Kong Art Centre, Wan Chai
Steve first briefly introduced the idea of a Philosophy Cafe. For the
preliminary meeting, we had no prescribed topic. After suggesting we could
discuss "What is a Philosophy Cafe?", Steve asked for other suggestions.
Thomas suggested that it might be good to identify what philosophy we are
talking about. He also wanted to talk about how to make philosophy more
interesting and how to attract people's attention to the PC.
Clifford said that there was no need to identify what philosophy we are talking
about.
Alex suggested the topic "What is a family?" We agreed to defer this topic for
another occasion.
Barbara suggested the topic "Why are we here?" Steve suggested and everyone
agreed that we could choose this as a topic and regard it as having to aspects,
relating to the purpose of philosophy and to the purpose of a PC.
Steve pointed out that he doesn't want the PC to be another higher level
academic meeting for philosophy discussion as there are already other similar
meetings in Hong Kong. He said that we could create things as we go along.
Roy suggested that philosophy is all about the questions, "What is real?" and
"What is good?" The first question deals with metaphysics and the second one
with ethics. We should bear in mind these two questions and perhaps apply them
to a series of topics we might want to discuss (either in a local or global
context).
Barbara said she wants a bottom-up kind of philosophy discussion.
Clifford added that we could ask "What is bad?" and "What is unreal?" And he
also suggested the possibility of pure philosophy, that we should not be limited
by any context or assumptions, such as goodness and being real, or being
applicable to daily life.
But Thomas said we need some fundamentals and standards. He then gave
definitions of philosophy, science and aesthetics.
Steve added that philosophy is to ask "What is ----?" and suggested that
philosophy may be definable as the "self-defining" discipline.
Barbara asked whether it would be better to say philosophy is asking fundamental
questions.
After a great deal of discussion of various ways of approaching these issues,
Loretta suggested that we should start by asking naive questions and treat
ourselves like ordinary people who know little about philosophy.
Everyone agreed that this preliminary meeting was good enough to justify
planning to meet regularly, starting in mid-September. Initially the meetings
will be monthly; but if there is sufficient interest, we may begin meeting more
frequently. Steve will announce the exact date in late August. The venue will be
the Open Kitchen, on the 6th floor of the HK Arts Centre. Steve suggested that
anyone who does not want to continue should let him know by email. Other
feedback is also welcome.
Roy suggested that the one who suggests a selected topic should give a very
brief introduction (less than 5 minutes) of that topic before starting the
discussion.
Topics suggested for future meetings were:
- What is the relation between emotions and reason?
- Is there a non- sensory way of knowing things?
After some discussion, we agreed to base the next meeting on Alex's question
(suggested earlier). He clarified that his interest is to discuss what qualifies
one as a family member and what rights or obligations does this give a person?
After several suggested titles, we agreed on: "What makes a family?"
Steve then concluded by sharing about how other philosophy cafes operate in
other places like New York and Paris and why he would like to make it happen in
Hong Kong.
This page was placed on this web site on 2 March 2000.
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