June 26

Title: Lived Experience, Historical Consciousness and

Narrative: A Combinatory Aesthetics Ethic

Speaker: Dr. David Pendery

Abstract:

In this paper I introduce the conception of an “aesthetics ethic” conditioning historical consciousness and writing. The aesthetic ethic is a synthesis of epistemological, cognitive, aesthetic, experiential, linguistic and ontological qualities in accord in both historiography and historical novelization. By way of this synthesis, I posit a strong, binding amalgamation that links these two genres. The aesthetic ethic is a dynamic, densely deliberative field comprising individual and community historical experience, embedded within profoundly aesthetic and conscious contexts, in which history is first lived, and historical writing by historians and historical novelists is then composed. The aesthetics ethic will prove to be a useful map revealing details about how historians and historical novelists perceive (one of the source meanings of aesthetic) common facets of historical consciousness amidst a true kinship (one of the source meanings of ethic) of overlapping interests, methods and aims. We find that the writings and interpretations of historians and historical novelists overlap in important ways, such that, most importantly, historical novels become credible, newly imagined representations of the past, authentically effecting enlarged historical apprehension. My study encompasses not only letters, but also life, and I will argue that the fundaments of historical narrative is read up out of experience, composed by historians and historical novelists, read out by readers, and then replaced within a healthy reciprocal, contextual circle of human experience and communicative endeavor. All of these processes are at once highly aesthetic and ethical.




The forums are held in the Café Bastille 3, Taipei City, Daan District, Wenzhou Street, No.7 溫州街7號 (in the basement of the café). It’s close to Daan Forest Park (not the one at Gonguan) near the intersection with Hoping East Road. They start at 8pm.


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June 19

Title: Is Free Will and Illusion?

Speaker: Dan Aldridge

Abstract:

The question of the existence of free will isn’t just empty philosophical word-games – it deeply affects issues in both religion and society’s values.  In Christianity, Epicurus’s troublesome question:

“Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”
…is answered by apologists primarily with the argument that God gave people free will, and hence, suffering and evil are things we bring upon ourselves. 

But if indeed it turns out that humans are not imbued with free will in the sense Christians claim, then Christians must re-exam Epicurus’s penetrating question in a new light.

In society, the bonuses we heap upon CEO’s  – far disproportionate to the roll statisticians tells us they likely have (or don’t have) in determining a company’s fortunes – are probably due largely in part to the fact that we tend to attribute a God-like agenticity to the visible head of a company, who we imagine determines its fate much in the way we imagine God determines that of the universe, and our indivisible souls determine that of our own lives.    

And in criminal justice, more often than not, we still see systems which are focused primarily on retribution rather than correction. This is to a large degree a result of the fact that, even in light of everything neurology, genetics, psychology and sociology tell us about consciousness and decision-making, we still like to see things in terms of individual agents making choices independently of circumstance.  We bridle at the notion that people aren't responsible for their actions, and seek catharsis in moments where evil-doers receive what we they have coming.

      This discussion will explore these questions, and further, try to see the implications and even suggest a prognosis for individuals and society if indeed the cherished notion of a self -- making choices freely outside the chain of causality -- turns out to be unworkable in light of what science has to say on the subject.




The forums are held in the Café Bastille 3, Taipei City, Daan District, Wenzhou Street, No.7 溫州街7號 (in the basement of the café). It’s close to Daan Forest Park (not the one at Gonguan) near the intersection with Hoping East Road. They start at 8pm.


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June Forums

June 12

Speaker: Ethan Kegley

Title: Food In the 21st Century: Its Waste and How to Stop It
Abstract:

When I was in 9^th grade I had a General Sciences teacher who started his first lesson of the year with the old adage: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Of course my classmates and I had to argue with him. We got what we thought were free lunches every day.  Provided by our parents and sent to school with us. We thought that if he were to buy us lunch it would, necessarily, be a free lunch for us. We were not, all of us, so naïve as to think that nobody paid for the lunches we ate. We were, on the other hand, stubborn and little educated. I was 15 years old then and the second half of my life has been a journey of food (and other things). After reading such books as “If You Love this Planet,” “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” “Botany of Desire,” “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” and “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” at the age of 29, I finally decided to change my life. I stopped eating cake, cookies, chips, candy, and stopped drinking soda and other sugary drinks. I also tried to start eating as locally as possible, stopped buying imported canned food and started making everything I could from scratch. I will discuss the waste built into our modern food system. How unbalanced food subsidies are. The way modern food production has shaped the way we eat. The hidden costs nestled deep within our food choices. Some common and or popular foods and what the alternative to them might be. I want to emphasize that each of us has the power to vote with our wallet, every time we go to the cash register. Come and learn a little something about what we often include in our diet and why we don’t have to anymore.

The forums are held in the Café Bastille 3, Taipei City, Daan District, Wenzhou Street, No.7 溫州街7號 (in the basement of the café). It’s close to Daan Forest Park (not the one at Gonguan) near the intersection with Hoping East Road. They start at 8pm.


Check out our facebook group