Mark Singer has a short piece in The New Yorker here describing a recent event in New York with several philosophers delivering short twenty minute papers.
What do you think? Are we ready for such an event in Nanaimo?
You already have the Institute for Practical Philosophy at VIU, so I am sure an evening of short philosophy papers could be done under its banner in town. I’m in (assuming I’d be invited …)!
Some suggested topics:
– The nature of evil (cf. your Sunday sermon on Hannah Arendt)
– “To see a World in a Grain of Sand” (how much mileage CAN you get out of Blake?)
– Camus on suicide (Well …)
– Can’t do Kant (when categorical imperatives bead off your understanding like you have duck feathers)
– Do governments have the right to spy on you? Should you defend yourself?
– Speed philosophy! (2 minutes is all you get!)*
The topics themselves are only part of it. Time-boxed philosophy is performative … and we need settings! We should have at least one session on a beach somewhere … and there are quite a few landmarks in Nanaimo that could make this a one-off.
One request: Could we perhaps start earlier and not make it an all-nighter? I don’t think Nanaimo is quite ready for this, unless there is an after-hours speakeasy somewhere 🙂
Excellent comment! I agree; I have sent the link to Carolyn and Robert to determine their interest. An all-nighter would be difficult. I cannot stay up beyond 2100.
Episyllogism 
You already have the Institute for Practical Philosophy at VIU, so I am sure an evening of short philosophy papers could be done under its banner in town. I’m in (assuming I’d be invited …)!
Some suggested topics:
– The nature of evil (cf. your Sunday sermon on Hannah Arendt)
– “To see a World in a Grain of Sand” (how much mileage CAN you get out of Blake?)
– Camus on suicide (Well …)
– Can’t do Kant (when categorical imperatives bead off your understanding like you have duck feathers)
– Do governments have the right to spy on you? Should you defend yourself?
– Speed philosophy! (2 minutes is all you get!)*
The topics themselves are only part of it. Time-boxed philosophy is performative … and we need settings! We should have at least one session on a beach somewhere … and there are quite a few landmarks in Nanaimo that could make this a one-off.
One request: Could we perhaps start earlier and not make it an all-nighter? I don’t think Nanaimo is quite ready for this, unless there is an after-hours speakeasy somewhere 🙂
*Cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCsfHVM5x_I&index=3&list=PLooXvjsDDVu3vs0RBgjJ5o-DOjQOh-tHq
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Excellent comment! I agree; I have sent the link to Carolyn and Robert to determine their interest. An all-nighter would be difficult. I cannot stay up beyond 2100.
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