Hello Philosophy & Ethics Fans!

 

I want to remind you that the December 2011 Meetup (http://ethics.meetup.com/4/ and http://philosophy-in-LA.tribe.net) is happening this Sunday, December 11, 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM.  We'll be at our usual venue in Santa Monica.  Driving/ parking/ finding-the-room directions are at the end of this email.  (Driving/ parking/ finding-the-room directions will arrive in a separate email).  Please show up on time so you don't miss out on the introduction to the topic and the start of the discussion!

 

If your plans to attend have changed, please update your RSVP!  If you're not able to make it, be kind and free up a space on the RSVP list for someone else. 

 

For your future planning, these are the dates of our upcoming gatherings:  January 8 (the 2nd Sunday, 5 pm), February 12 (the 2nd Sunday, 5 pm) and March 13 (the 2nd Sunday, 5 pm).

 

After the meeting, feel free to join us for dinner and more conversation.  Location: Greenview Thai (Thai/ Pan-Asian) www.greenviewthai.com, 1.3 mi. / 3 minutes from our meeting.  Fairly inexpensive and open until 11 PM, they're at 11870 Santa Monica Blvd, West LA, 90025,[masked].  Take Broadway to 26th st, go left, then a quick right on Santa Monica Blvd and you're there in exactly 1.0 miles.  After you pass Bundy and Brockton, Greenview is at Armacost & SMB, on the right hand side.  Park on the street on in the parking lot, aboveground or underground.

 

The topic of discussion, the decisive winner of the email vote this month, is:

 

HAPPINESS: WHAT IS IT AND HOW SHOULD WE PURSUE IT?  Is it pleasure, satisfaction with one's entire life, a function of one's general emotional condition, or something else?  How can happiness be measured?  How do you know whether you're happy and how can you tell you're not fooling yourself?  Is dissatisfaction or frustration necessarily a barrier to happiness?  What are the main sources of happiness?  Is happiness something one can pursue directly, or is such a pursuit self-defeating?  How important is happiness to us?  Does anything else matter to us more than happiness does?

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READINGS - I have one reading and an audio program for you, so far - and I might have more readings I'll send in a day or so.  I definitely encourage you to inform and inspire your thinking on the topic with these readings! 

 

1.     http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/happiness/

2.     http://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/happiness-0

The Philosophy Talk radio show on "Happiness" is a 50-minute audio program with minimal academic jargon (you can subscribe for free at their website for all upcoming episodes or download this episode to your computer or iPod/mp3 player for $1.29).  The two hosts, philosophers at Stanford, interview and debate with perhaps the leading experts in the philosophy of emotion, Professor Robert Solomon.  He argues, among other things, that we can deceive ourselves into thinking we're happy when we're not, and that we can be happy without realizing it.  Solomon thinks happiness is a much more complex thing than most people think it is.  They also ponder whether choosing to be happy is necessary or sufficient to becoming happy. 

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OUR WEBPAGE & DISCUSSION BOARD-- I've posted the above info on our club's website, as always, and I urge you to post your ideas and reflections on the topic to the site, and read what others may have to say (either before or after the meeting).  Look for the discussion thread, "Happiness: What Is It & How Should We Pursue It?"  It's at or near the top of our home page (http://philosophy-in-LA.tribe.net).  You can also use the direct link to the discussion thread,

http://philosophy-in-la.tribe.net/thread/3d36fd6f-3af4-4c10-9e29-85bf67769d91

 

 

Whether or not you post your ideas online, jot down your thoughts and bring them to our discussion Sunday!

 

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FYI, here are the full vote-by-email results for the month:

#                                                Topic (in order of length)	Votes	Place
1)  What Do We Owe To The Dead?  Do We Have Moral Obligations To Them?	04.00	5
2)  Happiness: What Is It And How Should We Pursue It?…	35.75	1
3)  Punishment:  What Is Criminal Punishment For And What Justifies It?	21.50	2
4)  Science And Pseudo-Science:  What's The Difference?	20.50	3
5)  Time Travel To The Past...Is It Logically Possible?	12.25	4

Each topic stays on the list until it wins or consistently receives a paltry number of votes for three months or so.  Votes do not come in whole numbers because each of you receives one vote for your top choice, a half vote for your 2nd choice (if you had one), a quarter vote for your 3rd choice, and so on.  Recent, regular participants at our gatherings or website discussion board have their vote doubled. 

 

See you there!

 

Brian