Weekly Update

Alright, here's this week's update.

The topic for our last meeting was that of Ethical Relativism. To begin with, we established a solid definition of relativism, from which spawned a ton of tangents that were kind of related to the topic, such as objective truth, the existence of facts concerning ethics, cultural standards and the like. Somehow we ended up talking about ghosts, hauntings and the paranormal, with a little bit of the afterlife thrown in there. Even though the discussion wasn't as focused as it could've been, it was thought-provoking and interesting. In the end, nothing was resolved, but I think everyone present left with a lot to think about, at the very least. I don't know about you guys, but I haven't found that philosophy really yields definitive answers to every question; still, it's worth it to ask questions and explore possible answers.

For this Thursday's meetings, we'll be having a debate on a ridiculously broad topic: Materialism vs. Empiricism. We had an even number of attendees last time, so the teams are evenly matched (numerically at least):

Empiricists
Ben
Mitchell
Jennifer

Rationalists
Daniel
Amisha
Richard

Ok, there you have it. Of course, this is a really freaking huge topic, so the team members will need to do at least some amount of research. I know that when we left, 4 of the 6 people present promised to do some research, and I'd like to take this opportunity to threate--ahem, remind them of their commitment. So do your research. If you weren't there but still want to participate, I think you could leave a comment saying so, and then you'd be assigned by a coin flip, and notified in another comment or post on this blog. More participants are certainly welcome.

I can't think of anything else, so I'll end with a little paradox from Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar...

There is a town in which the sole barber--a man, by the way--shaves all the townsmen, and only those townsmen, who do not shave themselves. Does the barber shave himself? If he does, he doesn't. If he doesn't, he does.

Don't forget to prepare for the debate. See you Thursday.