SOPHIA’s Milwauke Chapter is meeting on Saturday, March 17th, 2018 at 1:30 pm at the MKE Public Library’s Community Room, in Milwauke, WI, to talk about “Where Do Justice and Kindness Meet?”
Details:
What we’ll do
Join us for the first public event of the Milwaukee chapter of SOPHIA (Society of Philosophers In America) – a public discussion of how Justice and Kindness meet up (and whether they are in conflict with each other). And consider joining this new SOPHIA chapter while you’re there!
We will be holding this event in the COMMUNITY ROOM of the Milwaukee Public Library, starting at 1:30 PM, and running until about 4:00 PM on March 17.
The first hour of the session will be a facilitated discussion – led by Andi Sciacca, Kreigh Knerr, and Greg Sadler – engaging the community on issues of justice, community, kindness or beneficence. What do people think justice is? Why are there so many conflicts about justice? What is needed beyond justice? These are just the starting points for our discussion. We’ll also look very briefly at one moral perspective that construes kindness as a part of justice.
After a short break, we will have a second discussion, led by Greg Sadler, and focused on some key ideas from Cicero’s work of Stoic Ethics, On Duties. We will go further into the interplay between kindness and justice, discuss what we owe those outside our community, and look at justice’s connections with the other three main virtues recognized by the Stoics – wisdom, courage, and moderation. No previous background , study, or reading in philosophy is required for the first hour – just an interest in participating in these discussions vital to our Milwaukee community. For the second hour, it is recommended that participants read book 1 of Cicero’s work, On Duties. We’ll be using the Miller translation. You can read it for free at these sites:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Cic.%20Off.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/de_Officiis/1A*.html
If you’d like to purchase the Loeb edition of the text, you can do so here – http://amzn.to/2CZZrh1
Given the focus on Stoic ethics, this event is also co-sponsored by the MKE Stoic Fellowship – a local meetup for people interested in Stoic philosophy and practice
What to bring
Interest in participating in the discussions! (and if you’re taking part in the second, it would be helpful to have read Cicero’s On Duties, book 1)
| Date: | March 17, 2018 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 01:30-04:00 p.m. |
| Event: | Where Do Justice and Kindness Meet? |
| Sponsor: | MKE SOPHIA Chapter |
| Venue: |
The Milwauke Public Library 414.286.3000 |
| Location: | 814 W Wisconsin Ave Milwaukee, WI 53233 USA |
| Public: | Public |
You don't have to be a member to attend, but consider joining SOPHIA!
How can we have productive discussions when there is disagreement?
Can tools from philosophy help in these discussions?
Are there strategies to use (or avoid) in these discussions?
Dr. Sergia Hay.
Please join us for conversation about disagreement!
If you have questions, contact Dr. Sergia Hay.
| Date: | March 5, 2018 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 7:00 pm |
| Event: | March Meeting - South Puget Sound SOPHIA Chapter |
| Topic: | Disagreement: Strategies for Talking Across Divides |
| Sponsor: | Pacific Lutheran University |
| Venue: | Anderson University Center, Room 213 |
| Location: | Anderson University Center 213 Tacoma, WA 98447-0003 USA |
| Public: | Public |
Come enjoy the conversation! If you are interested, consider the benefits of SOPHIA membership and consider joining SOPHIA!
A group of SOPHIA members will meet and lead a discussion about Episode 1 of Philosophy Bakes Bread, on The Molemen and Plato’s Cave Today, with the University of Kentucky Philosophy Club!
If you can listen to the episode in advance, great! If not, no worries, as we have the handout about it so that we’re all on the same page.
Here’s the episode: https://
The meeting is meant to be genuinely conversational, and to introduce people to what SOPHIA is all about.
Join us!
| Date: | November 29, 2017 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 04:00-05:00 p.m. |
| Event: | Lexington SOPHIA Group Chat about Plato's Cave Today |
| Topic: | Plato's Cave Today |
| Sponsor: | The University of Kentucky Philosophy Club |
| Venue: | White Hall, room 231 |
| Location: | 140 Patterson Drive Lexington, KY 40506 USA |
| Public: | Public |
Not a member of SOPHIA yet? Consider joining!
We are calling for applications for seed grants for up to $600, to support efforts to start SOPHIA Chapters at the local or online levels. The deadline for applications is October 15th, 2017.
Application document with instructions: in MS Word format or in Adobe PDF format
Application-only files: in MS Word format or in Adobe PDF format
Applications should be emailed to us at PhilosophersInAmerica@gmail.com, preferably in Adobe PDF format, by October 15th, 2017. We are happy to answer questions in advance, sent to the same email address.
SOPHIA is still working on the technical system that we will use to manage our chapters. For now, we will announce our chapters with a post like this one, for chapters that we’ll have made official, such as the Oxford MS Chapter. We have groups around the country, who’ve been working with SOPHIA for years, but we are just now formalizing our new system and mechanisms for making these chapters official. More information will be coming out soon about what’s involved. We will also be offering mini-grants to initial chapters who apply for the support. Here’s info about the chapter in Oxford, MS!
Chapter President: Dr. Deborah Mower
Core Members:
The University of Mississippi chapter of SOPHIA held its inaugural event of “The Great Debate” on April 27th, 2017. Each year, students from the UM Ethics Bowl Team will address a difficult question and debate the issues for an audience of students, faculty, staff, and all members of the community. This year’s question was “Should the governor of the state of Mississippi declare April ‘Confederate Heritage Month’?”
Governor Phil Bryant has declared April to be ‘Confederate Heritage Month’ in both 2016 and 2017. In 2016, the proclamation was on the Governor’s website with the purpose of the designation: “it is important for all Americans to reflect upon our nation’s past, to gain insight from our mistakes and successes, and to come to a full understanding that the lessons learned yesterday and today will carry us through tomorrow if we carefully and earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage and our opportunities which lie before us” [CNN]. In 2017, the Governor’s office did not post the proclamation on the website, but a copy was posted on the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans website [MDSCV and now on their Facebook page]. As stated on the website, the purpose of the organization is “to encourage the preservation of history, perpetuate the hallowed memories of brave men, to assist in the observance of Memorial Day, to aid and support all members, widows and orphans, and to perpetuate the record of the services of every Southern Soldier” [MDSCV’s About page]. In addition, the home page explains that “The citizen-soldiers who fought for the Confederacy personified the best qualities of America. The preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the South’s decision to fight the Second American Revolution. The tenacity with which Confederate soldiers fought underscored their belief in the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. These attributes are the underpinning of our democratic society and represent the foundation on which this nation was built” [MDSCV].
In The Great Debate, audience members were presented with a case with pertinent details, arguments, and concerns on both sides of the issue, along with a copy of common fallacies made in arguments. The UM Ethics Bowl Team each took a side of the issue and presented careful arguments, which were projected on screens via PowerPoint to help the audience follow the intricacies of their position. After the debate presentation, the team members fielded questions first from three guest judges (who modeled the kind of civil and insightful inquiry of the event) and then from the audience designed to clarify their initial arguments and to press follow-up points. After the Q and A and discussion, everyone was invited to a catered reception to continue the conversation informally. Through the clear presentation of claims and civil dialogue, we hope to institute this as a yearly event to demonstrate how to make progress on thorny ethical and political questions in our society through civil dialogue.
For more information about the Oxford MS Chapter of SOPHIA, contact Chapter President Mower.
