COMMENSAL ISSUE 95

Firstly, you’ll notice we’ve shifted to a new font (Times New Roman). New member Alan Edmonds reckons it is easier to read. This is the "official" font we use at work, so I have an in-built, albeit irrational, aversion to it. However, I agree with Alan that it may well be easier to read, so we’re giving it a go.

Secondly, and this should probably have been the first point, the Newsletter is a month late - an advance on last time’s, which was two month’s late, but hardly a return to normal service ! Today, I received a letter from Anthony Owens asking how SIG members can know whether their failure to receive a newsletter as advertised is due to the dysfunction of the SIGSec or Mensa House (Anthony put the question more kindly and subtly, of course). As it happens, he’s suffered from a two-pronged attack - my fault for Commensal & (presumably) Mensa House’s for PhiSIGma. Anthony suggested a page in Mensa Magazine listing the SIGs & their latest newsletters. I’ll suggest this to the SIGs Officer, Mark Griffin, who’ll read this anyway as he’s a member of PDG. I’ve occasionally thought that I ought to send a letter out on schedule (ie. in the first week of the month) saying that Commensal is going to be late (if it is), but presumed that some of you (mainly the "paying members") would object to the frittering away of funds. Maybe I should just try to get the thing out on time.

As usual, we welcome our new members to the SIG. Nine new members this time, so welcome to :-

Thanks be unto Roger Farnworth for suggesting the format for the May ’99 Conference at Braziers. I’ve left it much as he submitted it in November last year, except that I’ve removed references to the guest speaker, whose favour I have curried insufficiently, I expect, to engage him this year. Everything is provisional, so let me know your thoughts. Also, see the notes following the draft schedule of events.

I repeat here some details from previous issues of Commensal. The conference is to be held at Braziers College, Ipsden, Wallingford, Oxon., OX10 6AN, over Friday - Sunday, 7^th-9^th May 1999. 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 full fee, including accommodation and catering, is £92, and early booking is advisable. Apply for further details to the College at the above address (Tel: 01491 680221). A deposit of £20 is payable. 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.

Here follows some information gleaned from the King’s College London web-site (http://kcl.ac.uk). I’ll be attending the first conference on Consciousness, all being well, and will report on it at the Mensa Conference at Braziers, as noted above. Please note that none of the conferences or lectures below are anything to do with Mensa ! Nor, sadly, will I be able to attend many of the events. I merely draw your attention to them as another example of the philosophical surfeit those of us within striking distance of London have to dine on. Note that for the KCL Conferences one must sit on hard chairs and be lectured at, while for the PDG conference you sit in armchairs, as befits philosophers, and participate !

• Professor Ned Block (New York University): Consciousness and Representation
• Professor David Chalmers (University of Arizona): How Can We Construct A Science of Consciousness ?
• Professor Daniel Dennett (Tufts University): The Hard Question: And Then What Happens ?
• Professor Susan Greenfield (University of Oxford): The Chemistry of Consciousness
• Professor Nicholas Humphrey (London School of Economics): How to Solve the Mind-Body Problem
• Professor John O'Keefe (University College London): Consciousness as a Brain Process
• Professor David Papineau (King's College London): Are Theories of Consciousness Misconceived ?
• Professor John Searle (University of California, Berkeley): The Structure of Consciousness

Registration Fee : The registration fee is £75 until 28 February 1999, after which a late registration fee of an additional £20 will be charged. (Cheques should be made payable to "King's College London".)

Refreshments : The registration fee will include the cost of coffee and tea on both days.
There will be a Conference Reception to which all registered members of the conference are invited.
In addition to the registration fee there will be charges for lunch on 24 April (£14), dinner on 24 April (£18) and lunch on 25 April (£14) for those who wish to eat on campus. For those who do not wish to eat on campus there are many cafés, pubs and restaurants in the immediate vicinity.

Accommodation : There are fifty single rooms available at a cost of £25 per night for bed and breakfast at Rosebery Hall of Residence, London School of Economics. These will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

All enquiries to and application forms from : Dr Tony Dale, Centre for Philosophical Studies, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS; Tel 0171-873 2585 email a.dale@kcl.ac.uk

• Note : Several interesting lectures are now sadly in the past, namely : Professor Anthony Flew: Could We Survive Our Own Deaths ? Dr Michael Stšltzner (Vienna Circle Institute, Vienna): What Lakatos can teach the Mathematical Physicist. Lord Quinton: The Episode of Ordinary Language Philosophy. Professor Anthony O'Hear (University of Bradford): Popper: Science and Politics. However the following are still to come :-
• Wednesday 24 February 1999, 5.15pm, Room 35B, Main Building : Professor Robert Thomas (University of Manitoba): Reuben Hersh's Philosophical Project and Beyond
• Wednesday 3 March 1999, 5.15pm, Committee Room : Dr James Gasser (Universities of Lausanne and Neuchâtel): Logic and Metaphor
• Wednesday 10 March 1999, 5.15pm, Council Room : Dr Zuzana Parusnikova (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic): Health and Power: The Disciplinary Gaze in Modern Medicine
• Wednesday 24 March 1999, 5.15pm, Council Room : Professor Christopher Hookway (University of Sheffield): Naturalism and Interpretation: Quine and Davidson
• Wednesday 12 May 1999, 5.15pm, Council Room : Professor John Haldane (University of St Andrews): Philosophy and the Silencing of Religion
• Wednesday 19 May 1999, 5.15pm, Room 228, Strand Building : Anthony Hill: Art and Mathematics

Professor Julia Annas (University of Arizona), Professor Victor Caston (Brown University), Dr John Driver (Birkbeck College, London), Dr JC Field (Birkbeck College, London), Dr Marina Frasca-Spada (University of Cambridge), Professor Gary Hatfield (University of Pennsylvania), Dr MGF Martin (University College, London), Paul Snowdon (University of Oxford)

Further details may be found at http://www.sas.ac.uk/Philosophy. For all enquiries about this series please telephone 0171 862 8683.

• Ambassador Vassilis Vitsaxis (formerly Greek Ambassador to India): Questions based on his book, Plato and the Upanishads
• Professor Richard Gombrich (Boden Professor of Sanskrit, University of Oxford): On the Dialogue between the Greek King Milinda and a Buddhist Monk
• Professor Richard Sorabji (King's College London): Plotinus and India
• Dr Jonardon Ganeri (University of Nottingham) and Dr Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad (University of Cambridge): Common Concerns in Greek and Indian Philosophy

Enquiries to Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's College London, tel 0171 873 2088

Friday 19 February 1999, 9.45am - 6.05pm, Committee Room

9.45: Registration

10.00: Dr Peter Millican (University of Leeds): Using Computers in Philosophy

11.15-11.35: coffee

11.35:Dr Sylvia Berryman (King's College London): Results from Data-Base Research in Ancient Greek Philosophy

12.50-14.00: lunch break

14.00: Dr Luciano Floridi (University of Oxford): Should There Be a Philosophy of Computing?
15.15:Professor Donald Gillies (King's College London): How Philosophy has Helped Computing
16.30-16.50: coffee

16.50:Professor Peter Gibbins (University of Exeter): The Digitization of Philosophy