Blackheath Philosophy Forum in Blackheath, New South Wales | Non-profit organisation

Blackheath Philosophy Forum

Locality: Blackheath, New South Wales

Address: Cnr Gardiner Crescent & Great Western Highway 2785 Blackheath, NSW, Australia

Website: http://blackheathphilosophy.org/

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23.01.2022 The next talk in our 2018 series is at 4 pm this coming Saturday 7 July at our usual venue, the Blackheath Community Hall at the corner of the Great Western Highway and Gardiner Crescent, Blackheath. Admission $10 includes afternoon tea. Please enter the hall from the park side entrance, not the Gardiners Crescent entrance. ONE WORLD, TWO EMPIRES We live in discordant times marked by a strange but striking fact: despite visible signs of waning American global power and the bi...rth of a strident global China, few people dare openly use the word empire. It is as if things can’t be called by their proper name. In China, public talk of empire (dìguó) remains rare. In a case of unexpected symmetry, in the United States, the word empire also triggers embarrassed silence. Americans regard themselves as a benign global power, as a democratic force for good. But if by empire we mean a jumbo-sized state that exercises political, economic and symbolic power over millions of people, at great distances from its own heartlands, without much regard or respect for the niceties of sovereignty, then technically both the United States and China are empires, John Keane will argue. Just how unique these trends are must be central in any discussion of the future of civilisation. In this talk, he will explain why empires have played a vital role in shaping our sense of world history, why empires with a genuinely global footprint are rare; and why our planet, for the first time in human history, is shadowed by two globally entangled empires marked by different aims and practices. John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), and Distinguished Professor at Peking University. He is renowned globally for his creative thinking about democracy. He is the Director and co-founder of the Sydney Democracy Network. He has contributed to The New York Times, Al Jazeera, the Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Harper's, the South China Morning Post and The Huffington Post. His online column Democracy field notes appears regularly in the New York and Melbourne based The Conversation. Among his best-known books are the best-selling Tom Paine: A Political Life (1995), Violence and Democracy (2004), Democracy and Media Decadence (2013) and the highly acclaimed full-scale history of democracy The Life and Death of Democracy (2009). His most recent books are A Short History of the Future of Elections (2016) and When Trees Fall, Monkeys Scatter (2017). http://www.johnkeane.net/

08.01.2022 The next talk in our 2018 series is at 4 pm this coming Saturday 14 July at our usual venue, the Blackheath Community Hall at the corner of the Great Western Highway and Gardiner Crescent, Blackheath. Admission $10 includes afternoon tea. Please enter the hall from the park side entrance, not the Gardiners Crescent entrance. OUR CIVILIZATIONAL LEGACY We often hear reference in public debates to Western Civilization, generally understood as the norms and institutions we inheri...ted from the Greek and Roman classical world, the Judeo-Christian tradition, and the revolution of the mind associated with the Enlightenment. Our speaker will make the case that our education system at all levels has seriously neglected and undervalued this inheritance, and that appreciating it is not an exercise in cultural triumphalism, rather recognition of a complex and enduring historical reality. The Hon John Howard was Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He has recently been made board chairman of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilization. The Ramsay Centre was established in 2017 through an extraordinary endowment by the late health care entrepreneur Paul Ramsay with the goal "to advance education by promoting studies and discussion associated with the establishment and development of western civilisation, including through establishing scholarship funds and educational courses in partnership with universities". http://www.ramsaycentre.org/

07.01.2022 Dear All, Peter has posted a short article 'J’Accuse Identity Politics' on our website. If you would like to add a comment, or contribute an article, the page is set up to enable this: https://blackheathphilosophy.org/entry/Home/Debates

02.01.2022 Dear supporter, The final talk in our 2018 series is at 4 pm this coming Saturday 28 July at our usual venue, the Blackheath Community Hall at the corner of the Great Western Highway and Gardiner Crescent, Blackheath. Admission $10 includes afternoon tea. Please enter the hall from the park side entrance, not the Gardiners Crescent entrance. WESTERN CIVILIZATION: FACTS AND FICTIONS... The idea of western civilization has become contested turf. On the one hand, it is argued that western civilization is ineluctably wedded to the "Judaeo-Christian Tradition". The rule of law and the separation of church and state are two elements often cited on this side of the ledger. On the other side, it is argued that modern science liberated society from oppressive religion. However, each of these alternatives embed fictions no less than facts. This talk will sort out some of the muddles. Stephen Buckle is a philosopher, educated in Sydney and Canberra. His research has focused on the early modern sources of modern ideas, in particular on the 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume. His book Hume's Enlightenment Tract (Oxford, 2001) has been praised as "a masterpiece in the history of philosophy". Now semi-retired, he has over 30 years' experience teaching in universities in Sydney, Melbourne and overseas (England, Germany and Luxembourg). Thanks to all of you for your support throughout this very successful season, especially the volunteers on our organising committee. Thanks also to BANC and the Family First Credit Union for your consistent support.