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Irish Skeptics June Public Lecture

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  • 24-05-2007 5:08pm
    #1
    Myksyk
    Registered Users Posts: 3,550 ✭✭✭


    Hi mods .. hope this is ok here. Thought it might of interest to the posters on this forum.

    The details of the next public meeting of the Irish Skeptics Society are as follows:


    Philosophy & Science: Connection, disconnection, consequences

    Professor Helena Sheehan, Dublin City University

    Weds. June 6th at 8.00pm
    Davenport hotel, Merrion Sq., Dublin 2.
    Admission: €3 (Members / Concessions) €6 (Non-members)


    In the beginning, they were one. As the social division of labour
    accelerated and knowledge advanced, philosophy and science diverged
    further and further from each other, bringing us to the situation today.
    All disciplines proliferate into sub-disciplines of sub-disciplines. We
    know more and more about less and less. Who sees the whole picture? The
    lecture will sketch the historical trajectory of intellectual
    specialisation, its advantages and its disadvantages. It will focus
    particularly on the need of science for philosophy and the consequences
    of lack of philosophical grounding for science.


Comments

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    #2
    Myksyk
    Registered Users Posts: 3,550 ✭✭✭Myksyk


    Just a reminder that lecture is on this Wednesday.


  • Options
    #3
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    Oh hell I'm in work that night.

    Do A&A forumites get a concession? :)


  • Options
    #4
    PDN
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,686 ✭✭✭✭PDN


    Forgive me if this has been asked before, but why do Irish sceptics refer to themselves as skeptics? Is Americanese more congenial to atheists and agnostics than the English language?


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    #5
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,417 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Traditionally, the word "skepticism" with a 'k' is shorthand for the modern philosophical school of "scientific skepticism" (where claims to truth are regarded as more accurate according to the evidence available) in contradistinction to the much older school of "philosophical scepticism" with a 'c' (which tends to throw its philosophical hands in the air and declare that it's not possible to know anything). The C/K spelling difference has nothing to do with US versus UK traditions of spelling.

    Also, skepticism has tended, historically and officially at least, to remain largely agnostic with respect to religious claims to truth, though that position has changed over the last five or ten years as religious claims to perfect knowledge and inerrant truth became more influential than they were in the period up to that.

    You can find my rough-and-ready definition of skepticism here -- comments welcome -- and the Irish Skeptics forum lives here.

    .


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