Schome Park Ethics and Philosophy
There is now a SPii Ethics and Philosophy page!
Welcome to Ethics and Philosophy!
What is ‘philosophy’? What is ‘ethics’? They are both big topics, but you are more familiar with them than you may first think….
- Ever asked if the world is real? Or whether your eyes may lie to you? - Ever wondered what love is? What beliefs are? - Whether God exists? - Whether computers will take over the world? - Who YOU are?
These are all examples of fun and challenging philosophical questions. Philosophers have been pondering them and others like them for thousands of years, often to great depths! The excellent thing about philosophy is that no matter how much you know or don’t know about a topic, you will always have something to say about it. It is debate, conversation and opinions that make philosophy such a great subject. So what about ethics? Well….
- Ever wondered if animals have the same rights as humans? - Whether people have a right to die? - Is capital punishment right? Is abortion? - And for that matter, what are ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ anyway?
These are just a handful of the questions that concern us when talking about ethics. Just like other philosophical questions they can be thought provoking, fun and difficult all at the same time.
My name is Dr.Jen, and I’ve worked in psychology and philosophy for several years now, at the Universities of Warwick and Southampton. I run the Ethics and Philosophy forum for NAGTY which some of you may know, some of you may not.
So what is this pilot Second Life adventure all about then? Well, in our Second Life world you’ll discover a beautiful Japanese garden in which I hope we will have some exciting and fun debates and discussions about ethical and philosophical topics!
You don’t have to do any special preparation to attend a debate/discussion session; all you have to do is sign up! Whether you plan to chat lots and lots, or simply want to turn up to listen and contribute if you feel you want to that is fine. Everyone is welcome!
The Plan:
Talking geography, there is one main area of our garden in which these scheduled chats will take place (see links to sign-up sheets below). All other areas of the garden are free for you to start and hold any kinds of ethical and philosophical chats of your own. If there is a topic you really want to discuss and it doesn’t feature on a sign-up sheet, you could schedule your own debates in the garden using the discussion forum (and feel free to invite me or not!)
Also, I am open to suggestions about any of the topics below: we can lose some, add some, change some, or develop some. This is, after all, your pilot and we really want you to enjoy it. On that note, I hope to see you all soon in the garden, and I look forward to hearing your views on the topics of the day.
Socratic Shepherd (in world)
Past Ethics and Philosophy sessions
Induction sessions
| Date | Time | |
| Friday 16th March | 12.45pm to 1.45pm | SNP Ethics and Philosophy induction session 1 |
| Friday 16th March | 4.30pm to 5.30pm | SNP Ethics and Philosophy induction session 2 |
| Wed 21st March | 4.30pm to 5.30pm | SNP Ethics and Philosophy induction session 3 |
