Science & Philosophy

What do we do?

The group has been discussing issues in philosophy for over two years.
Some members have followed Bryan Magee’s excellent The Story of Philosophy. However, this book does not cover the most recent phase of the English language and European philosophy, so the newly constituted group is starting to explore these recent ideas and hoping to find a book that will help us with focus and detail. Our own ideas are always in view.

This group is full but there is space in Group 2

What do we do?

The philosophy groups focus on the turning points in Western Philosophy from its rise in Ancient Greece to the Present Day. We also work on the assumption that there are branches of philosophy and we try to think about these in turn. We have recently started to think about comparing Western and Eastern philosophy.  We use a variety of books. The most recent book we use is: Life – A User’s Manual: Life Advice from the Great Philosophers, by Julian Baggini, Penguin, 2020.

We have space for more members.

For more details please contact Peter the group leader.

What do we do?

Group members tune in to live online lectures organised by CSAR (Cambridge Society for the Application of Research www.csar.org.uk).

Each lecture stands alone and may also be watched after the event via the CSAR video library.

Some members meet online using Zoom immediately after the lectures to discuss the content.

New members welcome.

Talks Coming Up:

• Monday 31st October: Dyslexia, Rhythm, Language and the Developing Brain. By Professor Usha Goswami, CBE FRS FBA, Centre for Neuroscience in Education, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge
• Monday 14th November: Hydrogen-Electric Propulsion for a Clean Aviation Future by Sergey Kiselev of ZeroAvia. How the combination of water and sunlight or wind, alongside cutting-edge innovation, can fuel our future air travel and save the industry from an existential crisis. In this lecture, Sergey Kiselev will address some of the key engineering challenges that ZeroAvia is addressing to unlock this vital technology to power commercial green flights by 2025.
• Monday 28th November: An Overview of Rolls-Royce SMR. By Tom Peacock: Component Lead, Steam Generator & Heat Exchangers Rolls-Royce SMRA component engineer’s perspective on RR SMR’s power station design that will offer clean, affordable energy for all.
  This subject will be of very topical interest, as the government is talking about tackling our energy shortage by building a new nuclear power station each year, and the only way this could be achieved would be by using these SMR’s (small modular reactors).

What do we do?

This group for anyone interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Talks are given by our members, with the occasional ‘outside’ speaker, and so we encourage anyone in the group to offer a talk, you don’t have to be an expert to make a presentation. If a topic takes your fancy, and you are prepared to do some research, you will produce something we can all enjoy. Come along, learn more, make friends and have an interesting afternoon.
Vacancies: Currently we are full, but keep a waiting list. We are particularly interested in hearing from members who could contribute a talk(s) as we need to maintain a core number of speakers.

Cost. £5 per term (3 meetings) or £2 per meeting.
Time 1.40pm onwards for refreshments Presentation starts 2.15pm, usually for 45 mins – one hour, followed by questions and discussion.

Contact   Email Greg Eaborn if you would like to go on the waiting list, or if you are interested in presenting talks:  gregeaborn@icloud.com

2025 Programme
5th Feb – Whales
5th March – Cartography
7th May – Antibiotics
4th June – What is Science?
2nd July – Semi-Conductors