The first meeting of the Philosopher's Society went very well. We have begun with questions to get to know one another. We are a group who tend to expand on topics and find tangents to those topics, however we remain productive as we get to know one another further. We have diverse backgrounds, diverse opinions and experiences and i believe this will serve our discussions well as we go forward.
Today began with a basic 101 of what Philosophy is, what common fallacies are and a look at inductive and deductive reasoning. A good site for understanding fallacies is: www.yourlogicalfallacyis.com
Philosophy is the study of ways to address fundamental questions in all other fields. Basically, question everything. Do not merely accept something, question it. Ask why or how. Learn from those we are speaking with. This does not mean we must agree with them, but it is a downfall that in recent years the ability to discuss and debate without attacking the other person has been lost.
One of the keys that I believe is needed for this is Active Listening. We should stop listening just so we may answer or retort. We must listen to other points of view in order to understand what they are saying. Many misunderstandings can be avoided by actually listening to anothers point of view. Furthermore, we may learn something from the experience should we be so lucky.
We went on to discuss briefly our backgrounds, where we come from and what our upbringing was like. We did this to better understand where each person is coming from in the discussions down the road. We have the advantage that with our diverse group, We examine and believe in different things. We acknowledge things in different ways and analyze things differently. Our group holds individuals who ascribe to varying beliefs from christianity to atheism and even pantheism. Beliefs ranging from the strictly provable to the intuitive. Skepticism to mysticism. We acknowledge that we do not agree with one another on things, there are things some of us may find unbelievable or even unrealistic, or close minded. We do not however attack one another, we discuss and we learn one anothers views. The more we learn of others, the better we may peacefully and successfully function in the world.
We will be deciding on a topic in the coming weeks for our next meeting. We further decided that the Society shall meet once per month for our discussions.
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