The Global Atheist Convention is returning in 2018 and one of the speakers who spoke at a previous convention is returning — this is the talk she gave called “Atheism or Secularism? Picking our Fights and Watching our Backs”.

 Dr Leslie Cannold is a bio-ethicist, researcher, writer, commentator and an Honorary Fellow at the School of Philosophy, Anthropology, & Social Inquiry at the University of Melbourne, and lecturer at the Centre for Gender and Medicine at Monash University. She is author of the award-winning The Abortion Myth : Feminism, morality and the hard choices women make and the novel The Book of Rachael.

This presentation was made at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention.

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For Patreon subscribers, there’s further revision questions by heading to www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess.1.Does the claim that “god is dead and we have killed him” have implications for ethical behaviour? Why or why not?2. Does a postmodern perspective result in meaninglessness?3. What should be criteria for leading a meaningful life?4. Dreams and other introspections are irrelevant to our existence and should be dismissed. Discuss.

 

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Today’s episode is the revision on historical philosophers from the past week — you can support the 365DaysOfPhilosophy podcast by visiting www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess and review previous episodes at www.365daysofphilosophy.com.

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The challenges of defining postmodernism include how many different disciplines have examples of this school of thought. Film, music, visual arts, literature, even architecture can be classed as having examples of what are a group of theories that rejects Enlightenment modernism, such as objective knowledge, certainty in beliefs such as the power of science and technology, and even that we can understand society and nature at all. 

Jean-Francis Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition suggests that it’s a ‘incredulity towards metanarratives’, and that while theories like Marxism have been tried and tested, there’s still not a given answer as to how one should view the world. The natural confusion and conflict that you can have about the world is better handled by recognising that there’s localised narratives that recognise different valid perspectives. Other philosophers that have investigated postmodernism include Deluze, Foucault and Baudrillard.

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I’ve previously written about Simone de Beauvoir’s book The Second Sex and the recently published book At The Existentialist Café- Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails, but not about Jean-Paul Satre. He was an author of not only philosophical texts but also novels and plays, which have continued to be popular as intellectual sources of debate and entertainment.

He began writing in the mid-1930s and became a popular author, particularly with Being and Nothingness, an investigation of consciousness and existence, incorporating the phenomenological method of Husserl. Another work, Nausea, described the sense of distance and uncomfortableness that results from a potentially meaningless and chaotic world, and the aim of a productive existence that results.

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Born in Germany, Martin Heidegger was a Continental philosopher who was influenced by the phenomenological theories of his colleague Husserl, and succeeded him as the chair of philosophy at Freiburg. His work Being and Time is considered to be an important philosophical work of the 20th century, looking at ideas about authenticity, temporality, anxiety and existence, particularly concepts of death.

He observed that we respond to death differently to other creatures, and this ‘being-towards-death’ is both a challenge and a concern. With a meaningful and authentic life, Heidegger suggests that the acceptance of our mortality is a part of having a resolute existence. 

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Known for his work on logical investigations and phenomenology, Edmud Husserl originally trained as a mathematician before studying philosophy and becoming a teacher of the subject. You can see how this influences his work; similar to Descartes, he has a methodical approach to thinking and his theory of phenomenology involves careful introspective study of psychological behaviour (such as dreams, thoughts, concepts). 

Husserl’s work focuses on how reality appears to us, rather than attempting to ascertain what reality involves. All thought is ‘intentional’, or directed towards some object, leading to the object of thought (or noema) being separate from the act of consciousness (the noesis). Numbers, ideas, all were investigated in order to ascertain the essential and necessary elements of these concepts.

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“God is dead” is one of the most memorable quotes by Friedrich Nietzsche i— and it’s one that might lead to misinterpretation of his overall philosophy. In The Gay Science, he proposes that there is no rational basis for belief in a deity, and that traditions, institutions and worship has been challenged by developments in science and society.

However, he admits that the staying power of religion persists and that there are many that are not reflecting on the philosophical implication of a godless world, and that new values and meaning to life will have to be ascertained. As described by Nietzsche in Thus Spake Zarathustra, this future for humanity will create new opportunities and challenges, which should be embraced, rather than turning back to be a part of the ‘herd’ of superstitions.

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Today’s episode is the revision on secularism and humanism from the past week — you can support the 365DaysOfPhilosophy podcast by visiting www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess and review previous episodes at www.365daysofphilosophy.com.

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There’s a number of recommended podcasts out there on the topic of human rights, some individual episodes and some full programs that you can check out:

Pod Rights — Podcasts by the Australian Human Rights Commission

Salman Rushdie — Secular Values, Human Rights and Islamism— Point of Inquiry

Raimond Gaita on Torture and Tom Sorell on Surveillance— Philosophy Bites

The Philosophy of Human Rights — Podcast — Philosophy Now Radio Show

The History and Practice of Human Rights

BBC4 — Law In Action

My Voice Counts 2012 — International Human Rights Day

University of Oxford Podcasts on Human Rights

Human Rights Watch Podcasts

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