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.

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.

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.

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! 

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.