. Program 2010
APRIL 10 POLITICS AND FREEDOM: PLATO AND ISAIAH BERLIN
Tony Lynch, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Politics, University of New England
In 1958, in a famous essay, Isaiah Berlin distinguished between the concept of negative freedom (roughly, you are free if you can do what you want) and that of positive freedom (roughly, you are free if you are in control of what it is you want) and suggested that when it comes to politics, negative freedom is the more desirable as positive freedom tends to authoritarianism. Dr lynch will assess this claim by returning to the 'UR' text of western political thought, Plato's Republic. Using it he will argue that Berlin has things exactly the wrong way around. He will conclude with some pointed observations on contemporary political life and thought.
APRIL 24 PERSONAL IDENTITY, THE SELF AND LIBERTY
Dr Arif Ahmed, Lecturer in the Faculty of Philosophy, Cambridge University, UK
This talk will outline advances in philosophical and scientific thinking about the nature, unity and persistence of the 'self ' between pre-Enlightenment times and the present day. These advances raise questions about the whole notion of individual liberty because they cast doubt upon the rigidity that the concept of an individual is commonly believed to possess. There are ramifications for various ethical and political questions, including those raised by abortion and euthanasia as well as the conflict between individual freedom and collective welfare.
MAY 8 FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY IN NIETZSCHE AND BUDDHIST THOUGHT
Dr Justine McGill, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sydney and Abbot Bhante Sujato
If Nietzsche is the Western philosopher who most eloquently expresses the moral dilemmas that emerge as faith in the Christian God declines, can the Buddha be seen as source of an ethical and philosophical perspective that at one predates Christianity and provides solutions to the problems that Nietzsche identifies? Philosopher Justine McGill will discuss the possibilities and dangers that flow from a Nietzschean, post-Christian perspective on moral freedom and responsiblity; the Buddhist way to conceive of personal freedom and responsibility in the absence of a transcendent God will be explained by Buddhist monk and scholar Abbot Sujato. Justine and the Abbot will take audience questions together.
MAY 22 INTELLECTUAL SELF-DEFENCE AND THE OPEN SOCIETY: CLIMATES OF OPINION
Peter Slezak, Program in Cognitive Science, School of History and Philosophy, UNSW
For philosophers such as Popper and Dewey, science involves a community of rational inquirers that serves as a model for society at large. This is the venerable Enlightenment conception according to which intellectual liberation is a condition of political liberation. Dr Slezak's talk will consider episodes in the history of science and philosophy such as the Galileo affair to shed light on issues that are critical today. He will suggest that certain self-styled scientific rationalists who pose as objective commentators illustrate Julien Benda's "Trahison des clercs" - the treason of the Intellectuals.
JUNE 5 ISLAM: TOLERANCE AND DISSENT
Gennaro Gervasio, Director of the Centre for Middle East and North African Studies, Macquarie University
The Spread of 'Islamophobia' in the West is creating an image of Islam as a monolith in confrontation with Western societies, without freedom, debate, pluralism of ideas, and above all tolerance or spaces of dissent. To move away from such misrepresentations, without negating the existence of a dangerous 'extremist drift', Dr Gervasio's talk will illustrate that tolerance and dissent, as well as dialogue and debate, were indeed a founding force of Islam since 622AD. He will look at the influence of this tradition on today's very diverse debates, both within Islam and between Islamic and non-Islamic worlds.
JUNE 19 IMAGES OF FREEDOM IN CAMUS AND SARTRE. THE RADICAL TWENTIETH CENTURY ALTERNATIVE
Max Deutscher, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Macquarie University
In his famous existentialist novel, L'Etranger, Camus creates the character Mersault as accepting everything as it is. In not working towards a future he is free to feel things as they are. He is free in being acutely conscious. Although Sartre and de Beauvoir (Nausea and She Came to Stay) also describe us as free in being conscious, for them we are free in our projects. We create a future and thus slip free of what bears uppon us. Mersault however lives as if cocooned within cause and effect. From our century, how do we judge him?
JULY 3 FREEDOM, CAUSATION AND PHYSICAL LAW
Jenann Ismael, QEII Fellow, Centre for Time, University of Sydney
There are two conversations that are carried on largely independently of one another in philosophy: (i) the problem of the possibility of free will in a world governed by physical law, and (ii) the nature and status of the forms of natural necessity recognized by physical science. Jenann Ismael will bring those two conversations together, arguing that developments in our understanding of causal notions can be used to motivate a Copernican shift in our thinking about natural necessity that defuses the threat that the scientific view of the world poses to personal freedom.
JULY 17 ESTEEM AND THE TYRANNY OF PUBLIC OPINION
Geoffrey Brennan, Fellow, Philosophy Program Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University
The desire for esteem plays a central role in social life, inducing individuals to adjust behaviour in the light of the prevailing values and attitudes of their fellows. But what are the implications of this 'discipline' for liberty? We commonly think of liberty as a matter of political and economic institutions, but what can we say about restrictions that arise from 'social pressure'? We may after all be able to mobilise the effects of esteem more extensively, or restrict its operation by altering the conditions of 'publicity'. But is there a clear case for doing so in the interests of liberty as such? The picture is complicated and Dr Brennan's talk will explore its dimensions.