Digest Week 5 Hilary Term 2022

Presocratic Philosophy Reading Group | 1:00 pm | Old Library, Hertford College

We will be meeting weekly to informally read and discuss various presocratic texts over lunch every Sunday. Everyone is welcome to bring their own food (not provided) and meet us in Hertford’s old library at 13.00 on Sundays. We will be welcoming you at Hertford’s main entrance in Catte Street until 5 past, but if you arrive after then please ask the porters to show you the way to the old library (which provides plenty of space and ventilation). 

We will start this week (Sunday the 13th) with Heraclitus’ fragments; no previous experience with the texts is required, but we welcome people bringing passages they found particularly cryptic and/or evocative.
 

A Spirit of Trust Reading Group | 4:00-6:00pm | Colin Matthew Room, Radcliffe Humanities, Woodstock Road

Written over the course of 40 years, Robert Brandom’s highly-anticipated 2019 book A Spirit of Trust presents a novel reading of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. It translates the Phenomenology into the idiom of contemporary Anglophone philosophy, demystifying the Phenomenology’s notoriously impenetrable prose and rendering it transparent to contemporary philosophical analysis

The reading group would be of direct relevance for anyone with an interest in Hegel and German Idealism. However, the work is only partially interpretative. The majority of Brandom’s effort is spent on making a host of contributions to contemporary philosophical debates, meaning that the reading group would also be relevant for anyone with an interest in the determination of conceptual content, pragmatist semantics, the social metaphysics of normativity, the metaphysics of agency and intentionality, the relationship between mind and world, and the historical groundedness of our discursive practices. As today's flag-bearer of linguistic pragmatism (following in the footsteps of Dewey, Quine, and Rorty), the reading group is a great opportunity to find out about Brandom’s own thought too, namely his theory of inferentialism, and its advantages and disadvantages over more traditional semantic schemas.

Hegel Reading Group | 6:00-7:30pm | Online via Skype

The Hegel Reading Group continues to meet by Skype on Tuesdays 6:00-7:30pm. We are reading 'The Phenomenology of Spirit' (any translation). We are now in Section 6 B: Self-Alienated Spirit. Culture II a 'The struggle of the Enlightenment with superstition'. New Readers please contact either susanne.herrmann-sinai@philosophy.ox.ac.uk or louise.braddock@philosophy.ox.ac.uk for the Skype link. Details of each week's reading are posted on: hegelinoxford.wordpress.com.

David N. Lyon Speaker Series | 5:00-6:15pm | Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College

Title: "Future Sex: The End of Gay" 

Speaker: Peter Tatchell

 This is a free event but you need to book a place in advance here. 

OxAI Safety Hub - Inaugural Seminar Series | 6:00-7:00pm | L3 Mathematics Institute

AI Alignment: An Introduction by Rohin Shah (DeepMind)

"You've probably heard that Elon Musk, Stuart Russell, and Stephen Hawking warn of dangers posed by AI. What are these risks, and what basis do they have in AI practice? I will first describe the more philosophical argument that suggests that a superintelligent AI system pursuing the wrong goal would lead to an existential catastrophe. Then, I'll ground this argument in current AI practice, arguing both that it is plausible that we build superintelligent AI in the coming decades, and that there are plausible mechanisms by which such a system would pursue an incorrect goal."

The event is followed by pizza social. If you have any accessibility requirements, please reach out to us at oxaisafetyhub@gmail.com.

Talks will continue in weeks 5-8. For more details, please see our term card.

The Axiom of Choice | 7:30pm | Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford 

From the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University comes a ground-breaking new play: The Axiom of Choice. Join eminent mathematician Andre Weil and his fictional creation Bourbaki, on their journey from zero via France, India and Finland to the edge of infinity, as they try to make sense of whether we really have free will or if our choices are pre-determined. 

Tickets available here

Weekly reading group on the occasion of the centenary of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus | 6:30-7:30pm | Colin Matthew Room, Radcliffe Humanities

We are delighted to announce that this term we will be hosting a reading group, open to all members of the University and the public, to mark the centenary of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

One of the defining texts of the 20th century, Wittgenstein’s first work is notoriously difficult for first-time readers. By working through it together, the problems that baffle us alone or leave us stranded can be solved through discussion, drawing on our individual readings and backgrounds. This is the perfect opportunity to cover a text often sidelined, or marginalised as an eccentricity in the history of ideas.  

The TLP is composed of 7 core propositions. We will endeavour to finish the text by the end of Michaelmas Term (first week of December). We will play it by ear together and see how far we get each session, though we will try to finish one proposition a week where realistic, with a few exceptions where more time is required. 

Every Friday from January 21st, 18:30, at Radcliffe Humanities Building, Woodstock Road.

Please message us at jack.franco@queens.ox.ac.uk or ph21251@bristol.ac.uk to let us know you’re coming, and to receive a copy of the text. We will be using the newly published (Anthem Press) centenary edition, by Luciano Bazzocchi and PMS Hacker (more on this choice in the first session!)

We will offer suggested further reading at the end of sessions. All welcome, students, staff and public. 

The Axiom of Choice | 7:30pm | Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford 

From the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University comes a ground-breaking new play: The Axiom of Choice. Join eminent mathematician Andre Weil and his fictional creation Bourbaki, on their journey from zero via France, India and Finland to the edge of infinity, as they try to make sense of whether we really have free will or if our choices are pre-determined. 

Tickets available here

The Axiom of Choice | 2:00pm & 7:30pm | Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford 

From the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University comes a ground-breaking new play: The Axiom of Choice. Join eminent mathematician Andre Weil and his fictional creation Bourbaki, on their journey from zero via France, India and Finland to the edge of infinity, as they try to make sense of whether we really have free will or if our choices are pre-determined. 

Tickets available here