All Thoughts Are Equal: the inaugural lecture of professor John Ó Maoilearca

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Time: 6.00pm - 7.00pm
Venue: Room JG0003, John Galsworthy building, Penrhyn Road campus, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE
Price: free
Speaker(s): Professor John Ó Maoilearca

All thoughts are equal

Agnes Heller writes that ‘every philosophy is - in its structure - democratic'. Though some might query whether philosophy should be democratic, the question for this talk is whether or not it can actually be practiced that way: is it possible to ‘do' philosophy democratically, beyond 'its structure'? ‘Democracy' is not understood here as political representation, however, but as ‘equality'. The question then becomes the following: can we truly take mastery and power out of philosophy by treating all thoughts as equals, irrespective of their origins?

I would like to address these issues by democratising philosophy in a radical manner, using the test cases of film-philosophy, paraconsistent logic, and animal thinking. What would such an equality amongst thoughts look like, and how might it be practised consistently? For the problem is that, even if all thoughts are indeed equal, it is nonetheless true that some thoughts appear ‘more equal than others'. It is the genealogy of this inequality that is also under consideration in this talk.

Followed by a drinks reception.

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Contact: Lucy Williams
Email: l.williams@kingston.ac.uk