The Psychology and Philosophy of Belonging

We are holding our first face-to-face session, after a long time, in a pub near Portobello Market, The Earl of Lonsdale (nearest tube Notting Hill Gate).

It will be a collaboration with another popular meetup group called Thought Experiments in the Pub (https://www.meetup.com/thought-experiments-in-pubs/). It has an open discursive style where members discuss thought experiments on a particular topic.

We will be combining our two styles to hopefully create an engaging evening on the topic of belonging.

Belonging (to a group) is quite ubiquitous, so whether you have a strong sense of belonging, or it doesn’t matter to you, or you feel isolated and excluded, it is well worth taking a closer look. We will consider the pros and cons of groups, group requirements, and what helps to be accepted by a group. Together, we will explore the theme of 'belonging' from philosophical, psychological, and life-experiential angles.

We will start with small group discussions of thought experiments on the theme of 'belonging'. There will then be a bigger, whole-group discussion, in which Dr. Nash Popovic will aim to draw out some ideas that we can all take away with us. This process will then be repeated for a second round.

How we'll do it:

6:00pm - Arrive at the pub, find us in the dining room. Organise ourselves into small groups (4-7ish). Have a look at the thought experiments posted here on the day of the event: https://www.bonnymisc.com/thought-experiments-in-pubs.

6:20 - Discuss thought experiment 1 or 2...feel free to veer off-topic.

6:40 - Big group discussion facilitated by Dr Nash Popovic

7:00 - Optional reshuffle - chance to change groups, to discuss thought experiments 3 or 4.

7:20 - Big group discussion 2

7:40 - Meetup 'ends', but feel free to stay and continue conversations :-)

We look forward to seeing you for this Psychology and Thought experiment in a very nice pub!