COMMENSAL ISSUE 104

1. PDG Gathering 2001
2. PDGList
3. Philosophy for All - PFA
4. PDG Web Page
5. Editorial Policy
6. Date of Next Issue (Commensal 105)

As I write this I'm about to start the last week of my first term at Birkbeck College, London University. In general, I've managed to downsize my day job to the standard 40-hour week, though some weeks have been very busy, and the railway "go slow" is highly irritating in certain circumstances - mainly when I can't get a seat. The course is interesting, though the Logic course is rather trivial. Greek Ethics is something I've not touched before, beyond reading Aristotle's Ethics many years ago. We have a course on Philosophical Problems, with one lecture and a "small groups" session each week. We are supposed to take it in turns to present a paper, but I've done three of the seven presentations this term - once because it was my turn and twice in default of others - and have been prepared to present all of them. Anthony Grayling - he of "The Last Word" in Saturdays' Guardian, and author of many philosophical tomes, is the PP lecturer and leader of my small group, which make the sessions interesting (for me, at least). In addition, I've set up the Birkbeck equivalent of PDGList. Finally, we've had our first "away weekend" at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park. So, things are looking good - though I've not had my papers marked yet, so maybe I'll be utterly deflated when they are ! This eventuality aside, I'd heartily recommend the course to anyone else within range of central London.

The temporary dearth of new members seems to have abated to some extent. So, a very special welcome to :-

PDG Gathering 2001

As announced last time, next year's Gathering is being organised by Roger Farnworth and myself. It will be on the subject of Consciousness and will be held at Braziers Park over the weekend of Friday May 4^th - Sunday May 6^th 2001, so please reserve these dates in your diaries.

Here's the draft programme of events. There are still some gaps, so if you want to speak - and I hope you will - please let me or Roger (on 01208 821 544) know as soon as possible. If there are more people wanting to speak than we have places, we'll se whether we can squash the programme up a bit to make room (or I can give up my slot if needs be).

In particular, we want to get the weekend off to a good start - so, we need both a suitable "hot topic" on the subject of consciousness and a couple of intrepid debaters to take on the subject. I've suggested one in default of a better idea - Is a Consciousness Computer Possible ? - and am willing to argue either side of this debate. I look forward to a full post-bag of suggestions !

The conference is to be held at Braziers College, Ipsden, Wallingford, Oxon., OX10 6AN, over Friday - Sunday, 4^th-6^th May 2001.

Braziers College was founded in 1950 as the Braziers School of Integrated Social Research to study practical ways of living in a group. It now operates partly as a community and partly as an adult education college. It has a country-house atmosphere, and is situated in its own attractive grounds in the Chiltern countryside.

The all-inclusive fee, ie. including accommodation and meals, is £95, and early booking is advisable - the deposit is £20. For the fiscally challenged, or those who don’t wish to attend for the whole weekend, other options are available. Camping is a snip at £5 / night inclusive of breakfast (but you have to bring your own tent). Saturday attendance is £5 with meals extra. Meals are £7.50 each for mid-day & evening.

Apply for further details to the College at the above address (Tel/Fax: 01491 680221, or on email at admin@braziers.org.uk). Please book directly with the College - I will keep in touch with them periodically to see how things are going. Partners, whether Mensans or not, are welcome.

This is the internet discussion group of PDG and invited guests. The list seems very active at the moment, with 45 members. If you don't want to be inundated with emails you can sign up as a "daily digest" member or a "web only member"; the latter option allows you to browse past emails on the web without them clogging up your inbox.

To join PDGList you need first of all to log on to http://www.egroups.com and sign up to eGroups. Then you need to apply to join PDGList itself. You can do this by initially doing a search on "pdglist" and then following instructions. Alternatively, and quicker (though you will thereby miss out on all the wonders of eGroups !), you can go directly to http://www.egroups.com/group/pdglist - again, you will need to join eGroups first (it will prompt you) - and then click on the "subscribe" link or button. Either way, I then need to accept your application. Once accepted, whenever anyone posts anything to the list, you will automatically receive an emailed copy of the posting (subject to the alternatives above). To post something yourself, just email to pdglist@egroups.com and everyone on the list will receive a copy.

Why not give it a go ?

Incidentally, for those who've signed up for PDGList, MS Word 97 versions of all the back-issues of Commensal since I've been PDG Secretary are available in the "Files" area at the PDGList website (http://www.egroups.com/group/pdglist).

NOTE : PFA has no relationship with PDG or British Mensa. See C100 (or http://www.pfalondon.freeserve.co.uk) for more details on PFA.

Kant's Cave : On every first Wednesday of the month, from 7pm (lecture at 7.30 pm) PHILOSOPHY FOR ALL meets at "Kant's Cave" for a lecture, debate and social evening. Kant's Cave meetings are now held at the cellar bar of The Penderel’s Oak, 283-288 High Holborn, London (3 minutes' walk from Holborn tube station). Door-charge: £1 (free for PFA members)

The PFA at the Mary Ward Centre : Philosophy Debates are to be held approx. monthly on Saturdays 14:00 - 17:00; Dates : 17 February, 3 March, 7 April, 19 May, 2 June, 9 June. There are also Public Lectures on some Saturdays 10:00 - 13:00; Dates : 7 April. The Mary Ward Centre is at 42 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AQ. There is no fee.

NOTE : The RIP has no connection to PDG or Mensa, but I can very highly recommend these lectures.

All Lectures to be given at 14 Gordon Square, London WC1 on Fridays at 5.45 pm. Admission is free.

My web-site, now moved to http://website.lineone.net/~theotodman/) and has had rather a lot more gubbins crammed onto it over the last month, I've now set up the PDG web page at http://website.lineone.net/~theotodman/pdg.htm

The site now contains most of the back-issues of Commensal, produced since I became SIG-secretary. The advantage of the HTML versions is that they allow you to hop around between articles (useful for understanding the mixed-bag commentaries on previous issues).

Hopefully, we'll soon get the links set up from the Mensa Web page, which should help advertise the SIG … we seem to be awaiting someone to volunteer to do the rather tedious job of maintaining the Mensa Web page.

This raises the issue of privacy - we've mentioned this idea for some time, and I pointed out the fact that the site is open to anyone who knows the URL. Currently, not many do but eventually it'll become more widely known. I've probably adopted a rather cavalier approach in just bunging the back issues up there, and it may be that some people don't like the idea of people outside the group reading what they've written (no that this can be prevented - anyone in Mensa can ask for a newsletter). However, if you are sensitive about this issue, please let me know. I can either place your articles on the PDGList web-site (where only PDGList members can access them) or I can omit them altogether. I'd prefer this not to be requested frivolously as it involves me in extra work - but either is technically possible without too much bother, so if you are concerned, do let me know. In the future, I will assume that any article submitted for publication in Commensal is OK for placing on the web-site, unless you tell me otherwise.

Editorial Policy

A few members have raised with me the question of what they consider to be excessively long articles appearing in Commensal. The reason this occurs is because enthusiastic members are willing to fill up what would otherwise be empty space. My policy on-going will be that articles, other than in exceptional circumstances, must be restricted to 4 pages. This does mean that more of you will need to write in (and I'm still awaiting the volunteer to write summaries of the interesting PDGList debates). I want the newsletter to be a hot-bed of debate, not full of set-pieces with authors receiving little feedback.

Given my commitments at the moment, my preference is for contributions to be emailed or sent on floppy disk. Otherwise they should be neatly typed and printed using a good ribbon so that I can scan them in. I understand that the SIGs Admin Team at Mensa head office has been volunteered to do typing for those who cannot do it themselves, so don't be put off from contributing on this score.

Finally, I've given up all hope of being able to comment on articles during term-time so apologies to those (including Roger Farnworth, yet again) who were hoping for me to do so. I hope to do so in the "holidays", but no promises.

The next edition of Commensal (C105) will appear in February. The closing date will be 15^th January 2001. The reminder date appears on the bottom of each page.

Best wishes, Happy Christmas, Happy New Year & all that !

Theo