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.

Transcript

Introductions (EJ: Erik Jarvis; DD: Derek Daskalakes)

EJ:  We are members of the Lexington chapter of the Society of Philosophers in America

DD: We want to invite you Tuesday Nov 13 at 6pm to Northside branch of the Lexington public library, where we will be talking about the ethics of dentistry?

EJ: Why Dentistry?

DD: Well Erik, we’re not just talking about dentistry. We’re talking about the fact that some professionals take advantage of us. Some don’t, but in Dentistry, they’re committed to not commenting on each other’s work.

EJ: If professionals won’t comment on another’s work, how can an individual protect themselves when someone has done you wrong?

DD: We’re going to ask all sorts of questions concerning work and obligations. Questions like…

EJ: What is the difference between a job, like waiting tables and a profession, like being a doctor or lawyer?

DD: if you get an opinion from your dentist, mechanic, or lawyer, should you trust it?

EJ: should professionals be held to a higher standard?

DD: What are the ethics that guide your work?

EJ: We want to know how you would answer these questions and other important queries. Join us at our next meeting on Tuesday November 13th at 6pm at the Northside branch of the Lexington Public Library where we will be talking about the Ethics of Dentistry.

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.

SOPHIA is excited to launch our second round of chapter seed grants, for up to $600 of support to start or grow local or online SOPHIA Chapters. The timeline has changed slightly this year. We have decided to accept applications on a rolling basis, but will give priority to applications submitted by November 15th. Groups that cannot meet that deadline are still encouraged to consider creating a chapter and applying for a seed grant.

In addition, this year we now have three resources available or well established. We have established, for instance,

1. That MeetUp.com is an excellent tool for growing local communities of philosophical conversation. No group is required to use that platform, but groups are encouraged to consider it. Its costs at just under $200 per year can be covered by SOPHIA grant funding, among other things.
2. We have created a Meeting Resources page, which is meant to make organizing your first or next meeting easy and simple. Note that the list of “one-sheets” at the bottom of the page is intended to grow rapidly, in time offering a wide variety of important and fun topics to talk about easily with the help of the sheet for easy facilitation.
3. SOPHIA has also created and published our very first Chapter Handbook here. The tool is meant as a guide for introducing people to what it could mean to launch as well as how to build and maintain a successful SOPHIA Chapter. We are in early planning stages, furthermore, of organizing online meetings featuring the leaders of our first chapters who might make themselves available to talk with prospective chapter leaders or the officers or members of existing new chapters.

Application document with instructions: in MS Word format or in Adobe PDF format

Application-only files: in MS Word format or in Adobe PDF format

Applications should be emailed to us at PhilosophersInAmerica@gmail.com, preferably in Adobe PDF format. While applications will now be accepted on a rolling basis, applications received by November 15th, 2018 will be given priority in this funding cycle. We are happy to answer questions in advance, sent to the same email address.

The Shining Network SOPHIA Chapter kindly shared with the SOPHIA national office some photos from their August 2018 event and a wonderful One-Sheet Document, available here, on “The Nature of Good and Daily Life.” What follows are photos from their inaugural event at Kamala Nehru College at the University of Delhi in New Delhi, India.

Thank you to SOPHIA member Dr. Geetesh Nirban of Kamala Nehru College!

Click on the image here for a printable, Adobe PDF of our One-Sheet on “Clutter.”

SOPHIA has created our journal, Civil American, and our radio show and podcast, Philosophy Bakes Bread, in part to offer content for conversations among our local chapters. The Chairman of SOPHIA’s Board of Trustees John Lachs published his short essay, “Clutter,” in the 2017 edition of Civil American not very long after his wife passed away. The objects in our lives can seem mundane, but they can also bear great emotional weight for us. The leaders of the Lexington SOPHIA Chapter selected his essay as the focus of one of our “One-Sheet” documents, which will serve as the topic and guiding document for an upcoming chapter meeting. You can click on the thumbnail image of the one-sheet on the right hand side or you can open it by clicking here for a printable version of the “One Sheet” document on “Clutter.”

SOPHIA is grateful both to Dr.  Lachs for his essay a well as to the leaders of the Lexington SOPHIA Chapter for drafting the questions that groups can use to jump easily into fun philosophical conversation. Thanks to Caroline A. Buchanan, Derek Daskalakes, Erik Jarvis, James William Lincoln, and Eric Thomas Weber. If any groups choose to make use of this one-sheet also, we encourage them to let us know how the conversation went as well as what thoughts their group has for possible improvement of this one-sheet or for future pieces.

John Lachs of Vanderbilt University

This piece includes the full content of Lachs’s short essay, thanks to Civil American Editor Shane Courtland. The author, John Lachs, is Centennial Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.