Vote now for the topic for THIS Sunday's Philosophy Now Meetup! (Sept 16, 5:00 PM, Community Room of the Yahoo! Center, Santa Monica)

Hi Everyone!

Our monthly Meetup ( http://philosophynow.meetup.com/30/ AND http://philosophy-in-LA.tribe.net ) is happening this Sunday, September 16, 5:00pm - 7:45pm!   We'll be at our usual venue, the Community Room of the Yahoo! center (AKA the Colorado Center), 2500 Broadway, between Cloverfield & 26th, Santa Monica, 90404, 310-453-0333.  Detailed driving directions are at the end of this email.  (FYI, these are the dates and times of our next three meetings, all of which occur on the 3rd Sunday of the month at the same location as above:  October 21 at 5pm, November 18 at 2pm , and, provisionally, December 9 at 2pm.  Mark these dates on your calendar!) 

Feel free to join us for dinner and more conversation after the meeting at the nearby and good "Earth, Wind and Flour" restaurant.   For more info, or to be on our regular emailing list, email me at [address removed]   

As usual, we're voting on this meeting's topic now.  Listed below are five questions or topics suggested during previous meetings or by email.   Please reply to this email (soon) with the name of the topic(s) that you would most like to talk about.  (Anybody can send in a vote, whether or not you have been to previous meetings.)   I will send a meeting reminder Thursday or so, letting you know which topic won the vote, and what optional readings we have!

1)    WHAT MORAL OBLIGATIONS DO WE HAVE TO OBEY THE LAWS AND LEGAL RULINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT?  Socrates, for example, seemed to think that we are obliged to obey the laws and court judgments of our society, even when we disagree with them or think them unjust.   Yet, if we do think a law unjust, we are also obliged to protest against it and suffer the consequences of doing so.  Do you agree with these claims?  

2)   IS SCIENCE CONVERGING UPON THE TRUTH, or do our various, successful scientific theories merely provide us with ever more useful ways of looking at the world?  Is it even necessary for our different theories to be consistent with each other?  

3)    IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE RATIONALLY PERSUADED TO CONVERT TO A RELIGION?  It's often said that people accept their childhood religion, or convert to a new one, for reasons other than a rational appraisal of arguments and evidence.  Is it ever rational to convert to a religion?     Whether it is or not, some argue that one's religious choices don't need to be rationally justified, that such choices shouldn't primarily be a matter of intellectual justification.    Decisions of this sort are, perhaps, akin to questions about one's preferences for food, music, or jobs. 

4)    FRIENDSHIP:  What does it mean to be a good friend?   What are the essential ingredients of friendship?  We can tackle a number of questions that philosophers have argued about.  How do you (and should you) choose the particular friends you have?   Do you have (or need) explicit criteria?  Aristotle, for example, distinguished three subtypes: friendships of pleasure, of utility, and of virtue.   Is it okay to make friends because the person is useful to you?  Because the person needs you?  Because you take pleasure in the person's company?    Because you like or share their character or traits?  Because you hold common views?  Is it okay to "trade up" when a new, potential friend comes along?   What responsibilities, if any, do we have to ourselves when choosing which friends we have?

How do our friendships affect our moral actions?   Can our obligations to friends sometimes trump our moral duties, or must we always subordinate our personal relationships to morality?  Many ethicists, for example, claim that the requirements of friendship pose a challenge to our typical ways of thinking about ethics ( e.g., utilitarian/ consequentialist theories and deontological theories). 

5)    GENETICALLY-MODIFIED FOODS:  how do we decide whether to, or how rapidly to, introduce such a technology?   And, if we as a society decide to accept the risks and benefits of this technology, who should accept the responsibility for cleaning up the messes that will inevitably result?  

If society imposes heavy regulation, risks and potential benefits are greatly reduced and delayed.   This philosophy, endorsed by many environmentalists, is sometimes codified as, "The Precautionary Principle."  The contrasting approach of minimal regulation advocated by many economic libertarians (sometimes under the label of "The Proactionary Principle") enjoys the opposite risks and benefits.  

In this case, the (probable) substantial benefits would be greatly increased and sped up, of course, as would the unintended, harmful consequences.   Moreover, it is difficult to predict the degree and kind of risks involved.  When something goes wrong, the benefit of hindsight tempts us to think that we should have known what to expect and how to prevent it.   But, no matter how much we study a technology before releasing it, unpredictable risks will remain, only to be discovered when the innovation is put into widespread use.  

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Send in a vote for your favorite topic(s) now!  If you have any suggestions for future topics, send those, too.  

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DIRECTIONS to the Yahoo! Center (AKA Colorado Center) Community Room:  2500 Broadway, at 25^th st, between Cloverfield & 26^th, Santa Monica, 90404-3065 , 310-453-0333.  From the 405 fwy, take the I-10 fwy toward Santa Monica - go 2.2 mi.  Take the CLOVERFIELD BLVD exit, turn Right on CLOVERFIELD BLVD.   Go a half mile, turn Right on BROADWAY, go a quarter mile, park near 25 ^th st.  Pa rking is free on Sundays on Broadway & nearby streets, but most of 25^th st is off limits; they will ticket you!  

The Community Room is directly on Broadway at 25 ^th st, at the corner of the building, a few feet from the "HBO Symantec" sign, right across the street from the LA Art Institute and a bicycle shop.    The room is not labeled, but you will notice its glass doors and plenty of windows with blinds on them.   If you have trouble finding parking on the street, ample free parking is available in the parking garage beneath the building.   The garage entrance is on the other side of the Colorado Center, so take Broadway to 26^th st, turn right, take your first right (Colorado ave); the garage entrance is at 2401 Colorado, on your right, just before Cloverfield.   When you enter the garage, go straight as far as you can, turn right, go as far as you can and park near the 2500 building, where the "HBO" sign is.   Walk up the stairs or take the elevator to "G" (the ground level), exit the building, take the short pathway until you can take a left (tennis courts will be in front of you), stop when you reach Broadway.   The Community Room is a few feet to your left.  If you input your address & "2500 Broadway" at http://www.mapquest.com or http://maps.yahoo.com /, a map and driving directions will magically appear.

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If you weren't with us last time, you missed our discussion of the duties we have towards ourselves and others.  Don't miss this month's meeting!  

Brian