At the start of the year I resolved to make two updates a month to this blog. I have been quite tardy in my updates, but hopefully will maintain some discipline in the months to come.

One notable date in my diary was the Philosophy Now festival on January 20

https://philosophynow.org/festival

The initial session “What Is Happiness?” was quite enlightening and , in my mind, thats when the lectures in the main hall only really worked. The sound there was not great and the atmosphere not intimate or comfortable enough for free flowing debate. Richard Barons discussion on Mathematical knowledge was quite well structured (as his lectures usually are) and Sanjay Joshis “Effective Altruism” quite thought provoking. Ralph Blumenau’s lecture on the philosophy of history once again made me thing whether I wanted to study history instead also. They had a good second hand book sale where I picked up Metaphysics by D.W Hamlyn (recommended by Geoffrey Klempner for his Metaphysics Pathways course) and the Philosophy of Language by John Searle, which should be useful for the Pathways Philosophy of Language Course.

I was a bit delayed over Christmas in the Pathways Philosophy of Mind course but am on track now and, as usual, procrastinating on my third essay on Personal Identity over Time (essays on Philosophical Zombies and Their significance and Descartes Sixth Meditation have been accepted into the essay cabinet).