Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Goodwill to All

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

This winter, the Lexington SOPHIA Chapter thought it would be a good idea to reflect on good will. We are accustomed to hearing around the holiday season about “Good will toward men,” a line from the Book of Luke in the Bible. It seemed like an important topic that might be on people’s minds around the holidays. What does goodwill mean, after all? Also, why do we seem to attend to it only around the winter holidays? Should it be seasonal? These questions inspired the creation of this SOPHIA One-Sheet on “Goodwill to All.”

The Lexington SOPHIA Chapter got together to test out this new one-sheet and had a terrific time talking about good will. The photos below are from our get together at the Northside Branch of the Lexington Public Library on Tuesday, December 18th at 6pm. We had fourteen people join the conversation. On this special occasion, which we labeled a “December Meet and Greet” and conversation on “Goodwill to All,” this time we had pizza and drinks. After the event, we had leftovers and one of our participants suggested that we invite everyone in the library to come partake in the pizza and drinks and join us for fellowship and goodwill cheer. It was a great idea and a fitting end to our meeting.

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Thanks to James William Lincoln for generating our first draft of this document. A number of members of the leadership helped offer feedback on the first draft and Eric Thomas Weber put some final edits into this document and generated a number of the additional questions. We encourage other members and chapters to try out this One-Sheet with your local community.

Posted on Saturday, November 10, 2018

VIDEO Promo – Mtg on “Ethics of Dentistry” (1m23s)

The Lexington SOPHIA Chapter is meeting at 6pm on Tues, Nov 13 @ the Northside Branch of the Lexington Public Library

The Lexington SOPHIA Chapter is meeting on Tuesday, November 13th at 6pm at the Northside Branch of the Lexington Public Library to talk about “The Ethics of Dentistry,” which was the subject of Episode 2 of Philosophy Bakes Bread with Dr. Bill Myers. Listen if you wish and can, but we will have an “Ethics of Dentistry” SOPHIA One-Sheet document ready for the event, which people can read at the meeting to be up to speed and on the same page. At the same time, for those of you with little time and a little more curiosity about what this is about, chapter members and leaders Derek Daskalakes and Erik Jarvis put together this little video to tell you about the event, only 1m23s:

What: Lexington SOPHIA Chapter Meeting on “The Ethics of Dentistry”

When: Tues, November 13 at 6pm

Where: Northside Branch of the Lexington Public Library

Join us! Here’s more info about the event, posted on our MeetUp.com page for the meeting. You can also join/follow our MeetUp.com group here, as well as on Facebook & on Twitter. And if you’re interested in becoming a member of the national Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) organization, you join here.

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Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2018

What Is Public Philosophy?

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

There is a growing movement for public philosophy today. Leaders of the Milwauke SOPHIA Chapter created a SOPHIA One-Sheet asking “What Is Public Philosophy?” given all the different outlooks on what the practice is that such a movement might entail. For a little more background on the call for more public philosophy, see the statement that the American Philosophical Association issued on valuing public philosophy here.

This one-sheet was created by Gregory B. Sadler and Kreigh A. Knerr of the Milwauke SOPHIA Chapter, with some questions added by Eric Thomas Weber.

SOPHIA is grateful to Greg, Knerr, and the Milwauke SOPHIA Chapter for sharing this one-sheet!

Posted on Monday, October 15, 2018

Ring of Gyges: Justice When No One’s Looking?

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

If you could get away with something that is considered wrongdoing, but seems like it would be to your advantage, would you be able to resist doing it? This SOPHIA One-Sheet addresses this question in reference to the story about Gyges’ Ring in Plato’s Republic.

This One-Sheet is based on a prompt shared by the Center for Philosophy for Children at the University of Washington, and is used with permission from Dr. Jana Mohr Lone. The first side of the one-sheet features the original prompt and the second side of the sheet is a list of questions drafted by Lexington SOPHIA Chapter members Caroline A. Buchanan, Derek Daskalakes, Erik Jarvis, William James Lincoln, and Eric Thomas Weber. The group will be trying out the One-Sheet on Tuesday, October 16th at the Good Foods Co-op in Lexington, KY, and may post a revised version after the meeting.

SOPHIA is most grateful to SOPHIA member Dr. Jana Mohr Lone and the Center for Philosophy for Children at the University of Washington for sharing this prompt with SOPHIA.

Posted on Monday, September 17, 2018

The Ethics of Dentistry

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

SOPHIA offers this One-Sheet document for groups to use to make a fun, meaningful conversation easy to hold on the subject of Episode 2 of Philosophy Bakes Bread, which concerned “The Ethics of Dentistry” with Dr. Bill Myers. Naturally, some of the issues raised in this one-sheet overlap topics of interest in medical ethics, but also concern ways in which people think differently about dental insurance and care versus general medical insurance and care.

This document was created by James William Lincoln, SOPHIA’s Secretary and a member of the Lexington SOPHIA Chapter, and edited by Erik Jarvis, Derek Daskalakes, Lila Wakeman, and Eric Thomas Weber of the Lexington SOPHIA Chapter.

Dr. Bill Myers is professor of philosophy at Birmingham Southern College, Treasurer of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, and editor of Philosophers of Process. He teaches the ethics of dentistry in the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s School of Dentistry.