PhiloMadrid meeting: 6th SEPTEMBER Wednesday + NEWS

Dear Friends,

Unfortunately, this coming Wednesday, 28th, I have an engagement and,
therefore, have to cancel the meeting: I'm not sure I'll be home by 8pm.

In the meantime, we shall also be stopping for the summer months and
return back to our meeting on Wednesday, the 6th September.

Later this week I'll send out information for our next social meeting at
the Retiro on Saturday 8th July.

Wednesday, 6th September, we are discussing: What is news?

The "news" I was thinking of is the news we see on TV news programmes,
read in newspapers and listen on the radio. But what are the
philosophical issues about news?

What is news?
https://www.philomadrid.com/2023/06/what-is-news.html


---- Julian: Remembering and Celebrating his life:

Close friends of Julian organised a party on the 6th June at the
Instituto Francés to celebrate and remember his life. Christine kindly
sent me some photos from the event to share with us:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2023/06/rembering-and-celebrating-julian.html

---- Summer meetings:
As usual we will stop the formal meeting over the summer, but shall we
stop for July and August this year or just Augus?. However, we can
organise more get-together meetings at the Retiro during this period.
Let me know what you think. Thank you….


NEWS
--Un giro en el aire
Lucinda Maxwell (Teresa)
https://libros.cc/Un-giro-en-el-aire.htm?isbn=9788411753296
Also from Amazon.es ( https://amzn.eu/d/a6RY3AP )

--Oscar's book is now available from Oscar himself:
"Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas" by Oscar at €35
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/09/toranzo-88-ilustraciones-y-coplillas-by.html

--It is with great sadness that I have learnt Julian Martelli passed
away early in October this year, 2022. Julian was very active during our
meetings in Molly Malone and participation was always respected by all.
Christine kindly wants to share with us a photo of Julian with her and
friends. You can find the FaceBook link below.

I also include a link for our visit to Toledo in 2008 when Julian came
with us on the day trip.

Julian
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/11/julian.html

--Jorge has kindly sent us the link to his book which is available for
Free Distribution at:
Evolution of Thought and its Influence on Society and Technology
https://www.adneli.com/store


Please let me know if you need the Skype link (preferably by WhatsApp).

Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com


PhiloMadrid meeting: 6th SEPTEMBER Wednesday + NEWS

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: WEDNESDAY 21st June: What is news? + News

Dear Friends,

This Wednesday, the 21st, we are discussing: What is news?

The "news" I was thinking of is the news we see on TV news programmes,
read in newspapers and listen on the radio. But what are the
philosophical issues about news?

What is news?
https://www.philomadrid.com/2023/06/what-is-news.html


---- Julian: Remembering and Celebrating his life:

Close friends of Julian organised a party on the 6th June at the
Instituto Francés to celebrate and remember his life. Christine kindly
sent me some photos from the event to share with us:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2023/06/rembering-and-celebrating-julian.html

---- Summer meetings:
As usual we will stop the formal meeting over the summer, but shall we
stop for July and August this year or just Augus?. However, we can
organise more get-together meetings at the Retiro during this period.
Let me know what you think. Thank you….


NEWS
--Un giro en el aire
Lucinda Maxwell (Teresa)
https://libros.cc/Un-giro-en-el-aire.htm?isbn=9788411753296
Also from Amazon.es ( https://amzn.eu/d/a6RY3AP )

--Oscar's book is now available from Oscar himself:
"Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas" by Oscar at €35
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/09/toranzo-88-ilustraciones-y-coplillas-by.html

--It is with great sadness that I have learnt Julian Martelli passed
away early in October this year, 2022. Julian was very active during our
meetings in Molly Malone and participation was always respected by all.
Christine kindly wants to share with us a photo of Julian with her and
friends. You can find the FaceBook link below.

I also include a link for our visit to Toledo in 2008 when Julian came
with us on the day trip.

Julian
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/11/julian.html

--Jorge has kindly sent us the link to his book which is available for
Free Distribution at:
Evolution of Thought and its Influence on Society and Technology
https://www.adneli.com/store


Please let me know if you need the Skype link (preferably by WhatsApp).

Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com


PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: WEDNESDAY 21st June: What is news? + News

What is news?

 

What is news?

 

Topic and Short essay by Lawrence

 

The news I was thinking of is what the media publish every day. This is standard practice throughout the world, but this is as far as we can go about what is common about what is news. Everyone pretends to be publishing news.

 

A number of media outlets try to including relevant and useful information as part of their news service. And many news organisations publish codes of ethics on how journalists gather and publish news stories.

 

In practice, many so called media companies have an agenda on the news they publish. Some are just propaganda mouthpieces of a dictatorship, while others promote commercial and political interest with an obvious bias content. This does not mean that we do not have real honest information if we wanted that kind of news: except that this requires motivation and skills at searching the internet. But the information is most certainly available somewhere out there.

 

This is a general topic with many aspects of special interests. A good starting point would be to discuss the necessary and sufficient content of a code of ethics for journalists and news media. Another issue worth looking at is: how much information to include as news? This is a different matter from biased news or misleading news.

 

As far as philosophy is concerned, I wouldn’t think there is much difference between “news” and any other set of information we come across life. How we deal with new information, what criteria do we employ to verify its truth and, and of course, what is useful information or irrelevant information.

 

Finally, a deeper philosophical issue is the matter of distinguishing facts from the truth. I would argue that facts come first when discussing the importance between facts and truth. We are entitled to our opinions and the truth how we see it, but we are not entitled to our (made up) facts.

 

 

Best and take care

Lawrence

 

 

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813

Email: philomadrid@gmail.com

http://www.philomadrid.com

 

 

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: WEDNESDAY 21st June: What is news? + News

 

Rembering and Celebrating Julian

 Rembering and Celebrating Julian

 

Close friends of Julian organised a cocktail party on the 6th June at the Instituto Francés to celebrate and remember the life of our friend, Julian.

Christine kindly sent me a video and photos of the event to share with everyone......

 

 

The link link below is from Julian's entry on his blog when he was doing the Camino de Santiago 27 ABRIL, 2008

 http://juliand1-caminodesantiago.blogspot.com/2008/04/day-6-monday-25th-april.html?m=0

 

If you have any photos of Julian or stories and wish to share with is please let me know to include them here: links to your material will also help.

 

Thank you

 

Best Lawrence

 

WhatsApp  on 60,6081813 (no comma)

Email philomadrid@gmail.com

 

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: WEDNESDAY 14th June: Phobias (no meeting this week)

No meeting this week:
PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: WEDNESDAY 14th June: Phobias


Dear Fiends,

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday the 14th June.

The topic on the 14th is: Phobias; and the topic was proposed by Jorge.

I still have to write an essay on the topic and hope to have it ready by
the weekend. This would be the link:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2023/06/phobias.html

TOPICS
If you have any ideas for topics please write to me so we won't take up
time looking for a topic during our discussion. Thank you very much….


NEWS
--Un giro en el aire
Lucinda Maxwell (Teresa)
https://libros.cc/Un-giro-en-el-aire.htm?isbn=9788411753296
Also from Amazon.es ( https://amzn.eu/d/a6RY3AP )

--Oscar's book is now available from Oscar himself:
"Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas" by Oscar at €35
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/09/toranzo-88-ilustraciones-y-coplillas-by.html


--It is with great sadness that I have learnt Julian Martelli passed
away early in October this year, 2022. Julian was very active during our
meetings in Molly Malone and participation was always respected by all.
Christine kindly wants to share with us a photo of Julian with her and
friends. You can find the FaceBook link below.

I also include a link for our visit to Toledo in 2008 when Julian came
with us on the day trip.

Julian
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/11/julian.html

--Jorge has kindly sent us the link to his book which is available for
Free Distribution at:
Evolution of Thought and its Influence on Society and Technology
https://www.adneli.com/store


Please let me know if you need the Skype link (preferably by WhatsApp).

Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com


PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: WEDNESDAY 14th June: Phobias (no meeting this
week)

Phobias

  Phobias

 

 

Topic by Korge

Short essay by Lawrence

 

There is no doubt that phobias belong to the psychology/psychiatry domains if not medical care by virtue of symptoms manifesting into physical ailment.

 

Phobias are described as “fear of an object, place, situation, feeling or animal (see NHS Overview below). And although fear seems to be a key condition of a phobia the nature of fear can also be described as “irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear…” (see the Wikipedia List of Phobias below).

 

The first issue for us is: at what point does an attitude or even a negative opinion against something stops being a dislike and becomes a physical manifestation of symptoms associated with the phobia. Indeed, why should an innocuous situation manifest itself into a phobia with physical symptoms? For example, philophobia, fear of love.

 

Fear is an emotional characteristic, and a legitimate topic in philosophy within the scope of emotions, but can some fears be reasonable and rational while other forms of fear associated with phobias irrational?

 

The articles below identify a range of phobias that are described as “Cultural prejudices and discrimination” or “Ethnic prejudices and discrimination” (see Wikipedia list of phobias). Even if we accept that some people might have a phobia for an ethic group, for example the Japanese, is this always rational or justified. Some British soldiers, who fought the Japanese army in the Second World War, developed a hatred of the Japanese after the war. This is a very subjective case for some individuals reacting to their personal experience and is quite understandable. But is someone who was born many decades after the war or not having relatives involved in the war justified to have Nipponophobi?

 

One of the key arguments for legitimate phobias is the personal and the context experience of an individual. So the question for us is whether a subjective legitimate justification for a phobia, can be objectively justified. Even a justification based on the scientific method. There is no doubt that the British soldier, who suffered when captured by the Japanese army, is justified to dislike the Japanese on both subjective and objective grounds, but what about everyone else?

 

Does this mean that in the absence of subjective experience, social phobias are not justified on objective criteria and are no more than just bias or racism? Assuming, of course, there are no negative experiences directly or indirectly associated with the phobia.

 

In other phobias, the objective criteria do justify the subjective feeling of phobia for something. For example being phobic about some medicine or food is many times justified; for example being phobic about penicillin or garlic. This is not just a matter of likes or dislikes but a matter of real physical discomfort if these do create a reaction in some people. But sometimes, we never know whether such items do harm us because we avoid them at all costs. Many people are phobic about flying and the fear of flying is in a way justified, but do some people go beyond what is rational.

 

The key issues for us are: the criteria that justify or not a phobia. The subjectivity-objectivity barrier. And finally, the language we use to describe the nature and intensity of the phobia we suffer from.

 

 

Overview - Phobias - NHS

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/phobias/overview/

 

List of Phobias: Common Phobias From A to Z

https://www.verywellmind.com/list-of-phobias-2795453

 

Phobia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia

 

List of phobias

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_phobias

 

 

Best and take care

Lawrence

 

 

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813

Email: philomadrid@gmail.com

http://www.philomadrid.com

 

 

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: WEDNESDAY 14^th June: Phobias