Town hall meeting on faith approaching

Tuesday 23rd of March, the Filosofisk Forum of the Agder University will arrange a town hall meeting in Kristiansand, Norway, on the topic of faith. I am involved in the planning of this event (and might take part in the execution of it as well).

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At this event, we'll apply the methodology of "philosophical consultations". Before the general, open dialogue, four representatives will talk about their personal faith, or lack thereof (a Christian professor of ethics, a Christian philosopher, a Muslim imam, and a non-believing philosopher).

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Here's a link to the (Norwegian langauge) Facebook group of the event.

Play, love etc. - UiA Philosophy Forum in preparation

I have previously mentioned the UiA Philosophy Forum (Filosofisk Forum) - see here, and here. Today the committee of the forum gathered for the second time. We have made a draft of the spring programme, which looks more or less like this:

1) Tuesday, January 19th (16-18)
Morten Tønnessen: "Lek som sivilisasjonens opphav" (Play as the origin of civilization), followed by discussion

2) Tuesday, February 16th (16-18)
To filosofiske samtaler (Two philosophical dialogues)

3) Tuesday, March 16th (18-20)
Filosofisk samtale om tro (Philosophical dialogue on faith), led by Håvard Løkke

4) Tuesday, April 13th (16-18)
Håvard Løkke: Kjærlighet som moralsk følelse (Love as a moral emotion)

5) Tuesday, May 25th (18-20)
Public lecture with invited lecturer, in town. Name and title T.B.A.

In addition, there will be a course session in "philosophical dialogue" (filosofisk samtale) - in preparation of the February dialogue and the public event in March - February 2nd.

While events 1, 2 and 4 are "internal" (university area) events - though open to all - the 3rd and 5th event will take place outside of campus, and aim at engaging a wider audience, in each their way (strictly speaking, this may apply to event 3 more than to event 5, which will nevertheless be made available for a general audience). The methodology for the dialogic events has in the Norwegian context been further developed by amongst others Øyvind Olsholt.

Besides talking at event 1, I will coordinate contacts for event 3, where we hope to gather individuals from different faiths etc. - protestants, catholics, muslims, agnostics and atheists - for a common philosophical dialogue.