Charity No
313712
Bulletin Number 6
Conferences
An SFCP conference on 'Ethics in Practice in the 21st Century' was held at Eynsham, near Oxford, in October 1999. It was attended by a mixed invited audience of thirty people from professional groups in the public sector (police, education, nursing, prisons) and representatives from the field of applied philosophy.
Apart from some interesting invited papers, the highlight was the inter-disciplinary discussion groups which occupied a substantial part of the total programme.
Amongst the fruits born from the conference was the active involvement in Socratic Dialogues for the first time by several conference participants afterwards, in London, in January and March 2000.
The Third International Critical Philosophy Conference ( on' Socratic Dialogue and Ethics ') was held in Loccum, near Hannover, Germany, during the last week of July 2000. Questions were addressed which had been left open two years previously from the Second International Conference in Leusden, Holland, . particularly ethical issues in application to the Socratic Dialogue. It was encouraging to have attracted 100 delegates to this Conference from fifteen countries, including some beyond Europe (Japan, Mexico and Australia). There were many young people among them. The conference proceedings are in preparation and-will be dispatched to participants. Further details will be found later on our website. During the conference invited presentations were supplemented by panel discussions, Socratic group work, workshops and some very lively and spontaneously offered poster sessions.
Note for your Diary
The next (and fourth) International Conference on 'Socratic Dialogue, Critical Philosophy and Politics' (provisional title) will be held in Britain in late July 2002 (likely dates: July 20 -25). Keep an eye on developments through our website
Website
After an exploratory phase, SFCP is about to commission a new website design contract. We expect the new design to be up and running within weeks. We would welcome comments and suggestions for improvements in due course.
Academic Lifeline for Bosnia
As part of our collaboration with Academic Lifeline for Bosnia (ALB), a grant has been made to a new initiative based in Sarajevo for the exchange of scholars. It is the 'Studio for Open Dialogue and Debate in Philosophy and Social Science'. The first scholar to visit the Studio under our grant was Professor Myles Bumyeat of All Souls, Oxford, who talked to students and staff from the University of Sarajevo on the topic of the Platonic dialogues.
The second scholar to visit the Studio under this scheme was SFCP Fellow Dr Pat Shipley, who gave two talks; one on 'Socratic Dialogue in Contemporary
Practice', the other on 'The Woman of Reason in Feminist Debate'. All talks were also open to the public, were widely advertised in Sarajevo, and well attended.
Dr Shipley used this visit to make the opening presentation ( on behalf of an American colleague) of the Women's Forum at a Conference in Konjic on 'Building Democracy in Bosnia', entitled 'The Role of Women in an Open Society'.
SFCP is looking forward to a visit next year from our colleague at the University of Sarajevo, Department of Philosophy, Ugo Vlaisavljevic, as part of the exchange scheme.
Our link with ALB has also resulted in the English translation and publication by the Society of 'Hijatus', a collection of essays by Nermina Kurspahic, which was initially published in Sarajevo during the siege in 1994.
Volume 2 of the Occasional Working Papers in Ethics and the Critical Philosophy was published earlier this year. Contributions include
Author |
Title |
|
| 1 | Peter Rickman | Kant Today |
| 2 | Susie Miller | Critical Philosophy as a demand for Resistance against National Socialism |
| 3 | Nermina Kurspahic | Woman in a Man's World |
| 4 | Patricia Shipley and Fernando Leal | The Active Self; beyond Dualism |
| 5 | Michael Chase | Pierre Hadot on Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life |
| 6 | Fernando Leal | The Relation between Value Conflicts and the Socratic Dialogue |
| 7 | Fernando Leal and Rene Saran | A Dialogue on the Socratic Dialogue |
Publicity Leaflet
In response to various enquiries, we now have an SFCP leaflet, outlining our aims, history, publications and activities. A copy accompanies this Bulletin.
Articles and Presentations
| 1 | Tamsyn Imison | 'Using Socratic Dialogue in School', in Headlines Journal of Secondary Heads Association), Summer, 2000. |
| 2 | Pat Shipley and Fernando Leal | 'Is Practical Philosophy for Private Profit or Public Good? A critical view of the Practical Turn in Contemporary Philosophy', to be published in Special Issue of Journal Philosophy in the Contemporary World-' |
| 3 | Fernando Leal | 'Every Socratic Dialogue is about Ethics', Lecturette at Third International Conference, Loccum, July2000. |
| 4 | Pat Shipley | 'Persons and Organisations. John Macmurray and the Philosophy of Psychology'. Invited presentation to the John Macmurray Fellowship Annual Conference, Cambridge, Sept. 2000. |
| 5 | Pat Shipley and Fernando Leal | 'From Value Conflicts to Dual Mandates: Do Organisations at the beginning of the 21st Century face an Ethical Impasse?' to APROS Conference, Sydney, Australia, December 2000. |
Workshop Papers at Third International Conference, July 2000
| Dorothy Moir (with Ute Siebert) | 'The importance of Socratic Dialogue for Political Life. and its future Outlook' |
| Rene Saran (with Barbara Neisser) | 'How can Socratic Dialogue be used in Ethics Lessons in School?' |
| Pat Shipley (with Loes de long) | 'How open can a Socratic Dialogue be? The Relevance of Psychological Factors'. |
Society Fellows
SFCP has appointed two Honorary Fellows in recognition of significant services to the Society over a period of years. They are Professor Fernando Leal and Dr Pat Shipley.
Grants
Professor Barbara Goodwin (University of East Anglia) who previously held one of our two Paul Branton Research F ellowships has a book in press based on research she did for the Fellowship: Ethics at Work (2000), Kluwer Academic Press.
Michael Chase, who received financial support from SFCP, was awarded his PhD earlier this year at the University of Paris.
Helen Aveyard has submitted her PhD thesis to Kings College London, where she held our Morva Fordham Scholarship in Health Care Ethics. She has also published an article arising from her research: 'Is there a concept of autonomy that can usefully inform nursing practice?', Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2000,32 (2), 352-258
Professor Fernando Leal received a grant to visit Europe in July and August 2000 to prepare papers, work with Dr Pat Shipley and update himself in social science literature in London University libraries.
Socratic Dialogues
Rene Saran has facilitated the following dialogues
| January 2000 | How do we recognize an unethical act? | London |
| June 2000 | The active citizen without education - what are the responsibilities? (for British Educational Management and administrative society, South East) | London |
| June 2000 | Is Bullying a fact of life? (for Hampstead School Council students) | London |
| July 2000 | When is unequal treatment acceptable? (at the Third International Conference) | Loccum |
Links
We retain our links with a number of UK organisations, including:
- 'Prison Dialogue'; the 'Macmurray Fellowship';
- the 'Police Ethics Network',
- the 'Society for Consultant Philosophers',
- and 'Philosophy for All' .
Rene Saran continues to liaise with our sister organisations in Germany, the Philosophical Political Academy and the Society of Socratic Facilitators.