| Don't know why I didn't come?
Origins
AnB is the nikname. The process by which the meetings came to be is in As We Were Saying. I'm experimenting with Amanuensis Mode in those pages, mostly so that Paul Marston will be brought up to date and able to interact more effectively with my brother. That is a truly unexpected spin-off of the process here. -- Richard Drake
Meeting 1 - Monday 8th September 2003
I don't know why Richard didn't come either, but he should have - it was fun. Discussions covered the following more or less continuous spectrum:
- Islam
- Terrorism and modernity
- Politics and its presentation
- Popper and London, Berlin and Oxford
- How the story is told
- Postmodernism and epistemology (with a nod to Maurice Merleau-Ponty and his study of perception)
- Thought, its expression and linguistics
- AI, strong and weak
- Science and the scientific viewpoint
- Islam
though not in that order. I wasn't sure whether we predetermined the goal of filling in jigsaw-like a continuous range of topics, or if that was just my mania for symmetry superimposing a pattern that wasn't there.
A couple of extra topics which popped up included:
It was good to get to know Nick Simons (to whom happy birthday) and also to pick up on a couple of new books which I'll read soon:
A useful addition would have been an Internet connection to find out just who said what in Monday's email correspondence. David Smith Confused Us All by sending two messages, with each of which Richard and Nick respectively concurred, believing they were therefore agreeing with each other.
Looking forward to the next one on Tuesday. -- Leigh Caldwell
We then managed AnB 2-7, between September and February. I still say Doing Heroes is the most important theme of all.
AnB 8-10 followed, with monotonous use of arithmetic, in March and April 2004. Having both Iyad Issa and Suleman Ahmed to the last meeting met a personal goal and led to considerable education for all present on Muslims In Europe.
Meeting 11
Monday 24th May on Auto-poiesis and evolution with Nick Simons, Iyad Issa, Leigh Caldwell and Richard Drake. Tom Ayerst says he would like to join this discussion topic at some point. We also discussed Iraq, Palestine and the Muslim view of Darwinian evolution. Perhaps one of the others would like to say more. (That doesn't have to be full minutes. Just the one main thought that has stayed with you would be very interesting.)
Meeting 12
Tuesday 1st June is a departure. We join Intelligence Squared in their journey. And get something to eat afterwards, at the least. Sign here or on that page if you want to link up.
Where is it happening? ~ Jem
At the Royal Geographical Society, which has a map. Meet by 6.15pm outside the door.
Meeting 13
Wednesday 8th August. I suggest joining Philip Bobbitt at St Pauls, as described here. Meet by 6.00pm outside the door. Meal afterwards, where we could start to take a look at pacifism and The Politics Of Jesus.
In fact Leigh and I talked about a wide range of things over a nice meal but not that!
Meeting 14
With Tom Gilb.
Possible future subjects
- Reactions to The Passion, with Suleman, Leigh and partners and any others, for or against.
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