WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.520 Welcome to Philosophy in the Antipodes. I'm Linda Burns and I work in the History of Philosophy 2 00:00:06.520 --> 00:00:12.860 Project at Monash University in Melbourne. Our speakers in this session are Professor Karen 3 00:00:12.860 --> 00:00:19.500 Green from Monash who will tell us about women in philosophy in Australia and Professor Chris 4 00:00:19.500 --> 00:00:24.520 Mortenson from Adelaide University who's going to tell us about the history of philosophy 5 00:00:24.520 --> 00:00:31.940 in this city. Both have made very large contributions to the topics which they will discuss in just 6 00:00:31.940 --> 00:00:38.020 20 minutes each so I'm not going to take out too much of their time by saying anything 7 00:00:38.020 --> 00:00:44.380 very much about those contributions except to say Karen has authored a book on women 8 00:00:44.380 --> 00:00:49.320 and reason which identifies cultural constraints on women as thinkers and she's going to tell 9 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:52.800 us how women in Australia have pushed beyond those limits. 10 00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:59.380 Chris has pioneered work in new areas of logic and he's one of the reasons why Adelaide 11 00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:05.100 has the place it does in the international world of ideas. So I'll now hand you over 12 00:01:05.100 --> 00:01:07.400 to the speakers. First Chris Mortenson. 13 00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:12.980 I'll have this one, thanks. 14 00:01:17.020 --> 00:01:24.220 Thank you Linda. Okay, let's start with a little question and answer session. Hands 15 00:01:24.520 --> 00:01:31.520 up. Which of you think of yourself as a philosopher? Hands up. Bit of a philosopher, maybe a 16 00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:36.260 lot of a philosopher. Okay. Which of you are interested in philosophy? Keep your hands 17 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:43.200 up. Which of you are interested in philosophy? That's as I thought. Philosophy is pretty 18 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:50.300 much universal. Philosophy is natural. Everyone thinks about it. Well of course I can't talk 19 00:01:50.300 --> 00:01:54.500 about everyone here so I'll restrict myself to talking only about people who are interested. 20 00:01:54.520 --> 00:01:59.080 People who have held down jobs as professional philosophers in philosophy departments in 21 00:01:59.080 --> 00:02:05.620 South Australian universities. Not even all of them really can I talk about. I'll restrict 22 00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:17.680 myself to the highlights only. So I'm here to tell you of the brilliant contributions 23 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:21.960 that Adelaide has made to world philosophy and here we go. 24 00:02:22.580 --> 00:02:24.500 So in the book, I'm going to talk about the first two things that Adelaide has done. The 25 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:24.640 first thing that Adelaide has done is to set up a chair for the University of Adelaide. 26 00:02:24.640 --> 00:02:29.720 And the chair that he set up in the beginning was Walter Watson Hughes, Copper Baron. He 27 00:02:29.720 --> 00:02:35.320 was instrumental in setting up the University of Adelaide which began in 1874, the third 28 00:02:35.320 --> 00:02:42.160 university in Australia. He donated 20,000 pounds to set up a chair in English language 29 00:02:42.160 --> 00:02:49.940 and literature and mental and moral philosophy. Just in passing in the late 1990s, I discovered 30 00:02:49.940 --> 00:02:54.480 a university budget line called the Hughes Chair in Philosophy. And it was a very good 31 00:02:54.480 --> 00:03:03.040 university. Containing $40,000, apparently forgotten. One wonders whether if the money 32 00:03:03.040 --> 00:03:09.380 had been invested properly in the 1870s, the Adelaide philosophy department would now be 33 00:03:09.380 --> 00:03:17.380 the owner of a substantial fraction of the Adelaide CBD. The first person to hold down 34 00:03:17.380 --> 00:03:22.460 that chair was the Reverend John Davidson of the Church of Scotland. It seems he taught 35 00:03:22.460 --> 00:03:23.860 Aristotelian logic. 36 00:03:24.480 --> 00:03:31.040 The second was a classicist, Edward Vaughan Bulger. He was dismissed for drunkenness. 37 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:40.660 The third was the first real philosopher, William Mitchell, who arrived in 1894. Mitchell 38 00:03:40.660 --> 00:03:50.060 was Hughes Professor of Philosophy from 1894 to 1922, Vice-Chancellor, unpaid, from 1916 39 00:03:50.060 --> 00:03:51.260 to 1944. 40 00:03:52.160 --> 00:03:54.460 He turned the early institution into a university. He was a professor of philosophy, and he was 41 00:04:13.140 --> 00:04:14.080 an eminent Buddhist 42 00:04:17.460 --> 00:04:22.800 you what philosophy has contributed to the world, then among the many things that spring 43 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:30.180 to your mind, you could say philosophers started the world's first universities, Plato's Academy 44 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:32.440 and Aristotle's Lyceum. 45 00:04:32.840 --> 00:04:34.360 Mitchell built one. 46 00:04:36.100 --> 00:04:41.220 Now as a philosopher, Mitchell's main work is The Structure and Growth of the Mind, 1907. 47 00:04:42.180 --> 00:04:44.040 This was well received in Britain. 48 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:47.580 It is, however, virtually unreadable. 49 00:04:48.700 --> 00:04:52.080 It's a model to young philosophers of how not to write. 50 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:58.800 His writing contains a forbidding technical vocabulary and is almost entirely innocent 51 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:00.720 of logical signposting. 52 00:05:02.060 --> 00:05:05.660 Still, when unpacked, it's interesting enough. 53 00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:12.000 In a recent book, Marty Davies makes out a good case for Mitchell as an early philosophical 54 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:12.720 psychologist. 55 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:16.780 He was an early psychologist, interested in mental categories and particularly from a 56 00:05:16.780 --> 00:05:18.100 developmental point of view. 57 00:05:19.420 --> 00:05:24.840 In this respect, he was anticipating the flowering in South Australia of the scientific side 58 00:05:24.840 --> 00:05:29.740 of philosophy, which flourished spectacularly later under Jack Smart. 59 00:05:31.620 --> 00:05:37.420 Mitchell was succeeded by the first Australian, MacKellar Stewart, Hughes Professor from 1924 60 00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:42.700 to 1950 and Vice-Chancellor from 1945 to 1925. 61 00:05:42.700 --> 00:05:46.140 His philosophical interests were continental. 62 00:05:46.540 --> 00:05:53.860 He wrote a critical exposition of Bergson's philosophy, 1913, and then later he wrote 63 00:05:53.860 --> 00:05:54.400 on Nietzsche. 64 00:05:55.760 --> 00:06:03.940 In 1950, a youthful 30-year-old Scott, Jack Smart, arrived to take up the Hughes chair. 65 00:06:05.640 --> 00:06:09.120 Jack represents Australia's biggest contribution to world philosophy. 66 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:12.680 He was substantially responsible for teaching the students of the New York Times, the New 67 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:13.680 York Times, and 68 00:06:15.940 --> 00:06:16.660 London. 69 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:21.840 There was no study 70 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:49.640 the physical body. If this should seem initially absurd to you, reflect that most people have been 71 00:06:49.640 --> 00:06:56.280 dualists, certainly all those who believe that the personality transcends the physical death 72 00:06:56.280 --> 00:07:03.860 of the body. Moreover, dualism is independently supported by solid arguments. I'm not going to 73 00:07:03.860 --> 00:07:09.900 go into them, don't have time. On the face of it, but look at it this way, your mind, particularly 74 00:07:09.900 --> 00:07:17.860 your conscious mind, seems to be of an entirely different character to your body or your brain. 75 00:07:19.760 --> 00:07:26.780 The other going theory of mind in the 1950s was behaviourism. That was inspired by the 76 00:07:26.780 --> 00:07:32.140 positivist psychology of Watson and Skinner and the philosophy of Wittgenstein and Ryle. 77 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:39.260 And the idea was that it was unscientific to speculate, indeed worse, meaningless to talk about, 78 00:07:39.900 --> 00:07:48.400 in a private state, private to a single individual, such as pains, thoughts and wishes are generally 79 00:07:48.400 --> 00:07:56.520 held to be. We do attribute mental states to other people, said the behaviourists, but in so doing, 80 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:03.940 we are simply describing their propensities to various behaviours. Language is inevitably social, 81 00:08:04.380 --> 00:08:09.600 Wittgenstein said, and thus its subject matter is also public. 82 00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:17.820 Now Smart and his co-worker Olin Place from the new psychology department could accept neither 83 00:08:17.820 --> 00:08:26.160 dualism nor behaviourism. They replaced them with the identity theory of mind. This agreed with 84 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:34.620 dualism that the mind has significantly inner aspects, your pain is yours alone, but disagreed 85 00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:38.260 with the dualists that these states were non-physical. 86 00:08:39.900 --> 00:08:45.160 Their view agreed with behaviourism that the mind is material like the body, 87 00:08:45.300 --> 00:08:50.960 but disagreed with the idea that the mind is nothing but outer behaviour. 88 00:08:53.240 --> 00:08:59.400 Finally, Smart and Place defended their view with a new set of arguments that represented a sea 89 00:08:59.400 --> 00:09:06.600 change in philosophical methodology. The going conception of methodology was that philosophy 90 00:09:07.540 --> 00:09:09.880 is conducted by conceptualism. 91 00:09:10.800 --> 00:09:16.900 So for example, questions like what is the mind or what is a belief or a desire or a pain 92 00:09:16.900 --> 00:09:24.220 are to be answered according to the going paradigm at the time by an investigation of the concept of 93 00:09:24.220 --> 00:09:31.960 mind, or more exactly, of the meaning of mental words in ordinary contexts, so-called ordinary 94 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:39.860 language philosophy. Philosophy was seen as a second-order activity arising from a 95 00:09:39.900 --> 00:09:46.920 confusion over ordinary common sense language that we all use. When we get our ordinary language 96 00:09:46.920 --> 00:09:52.120 straight by philosophical analysis, then philosophical puzzlement will drop away. 97 00:09:52.920 --> 00:09:58.280 Wittgenstein was prominent in this conception of philosophy as therapy. 98 00:09:59.740 --> 00:10:06.320 Now both dualists and behaviourists relied on variants of this method to further their various 99 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:07.040 conclusions. 100 00:10:08.800 --> 00:10:09.880 But Smart repudiated the idea that philosophy is a therapy. 101 00:10:09.880 --> 00:10:11.920 He refuted this understanding of philosophical method. 102 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:19.460 Instead, he proposed that it might be a scientific discovery that mental states are states of the brain. 103 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:26.380 His favourite analogies of how the proposed reduction of the mind was to take place were 104 00:10:26.380 --> 00:10:32.880 such things as the morning star is the evening star, clouds are collections of water droplets, 105 00:10:33.820 --> 00:10:34.540 genes are DNA. 106 00:10:35.180 --> 00:10:39.760 None of these were discovered by conceptual analysis alone. 107 00:10:39.880 --> 00:10:42.420 But by serious scientific work. 108 00:10:44.040 --> 00:10:51.180 This position on the language of philosophical theory was typical of Smart's other revolution, scientific realism. 109 00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:56.280 Here, Smart's view was similar to that of the American W. V. Quine. 110 00:10:56.740 --> 00:11:04.600 Philosophy is seen as strongly continuous with science, and language is not restricted to common discourse, 111 00:11:04.880 --> 00:11:08.680 but is dynamic and driven by scientific discovery. 112 00:11:09.060 --> 00:11:09.860 So, what is the scientific theory? 113 00:11:09.860 --> 00:11:17.540 For example, 105 years ago, the meaningfulness of beliefs about what is happening now in another place 114 00:11:18.920 --> 00:11:23.280 was enshrined in ordinary language and belief. 115 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:26.320 Indeed, we even still talk like that today. 116 00:11:26.380 --> 00:11:29.800 We say, even as we speak, referring to something over there. 117 00:11:30.020 --> 00:11:37.620 But the success of Einstein's theories made it clear that there's no absolute now except for right here. 118 00:11:37.740 --> 00:11:39.800 There's no absolute now over there. 119 00:11:39.800 --> 00:11:39.840 There's no absolute now over there. 120 00:11:39.860 --> 00:11:41.040 It depends on the observer. 121 00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:44.220 Language must change with science. 122 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:51.140 Furthermore, what there is, that is what exists, is to be discovered by science, 123 00:11:51.240 --> 00:11:54.380 or better, really by scientifically minded philosophers, 124 00:11:54.500 --> 00:12:01.600 who are alert to refined ways of simplifying scientific theories and the commitments that these bring with them. 125 00:12:02.560 --> 00:12:08.560 Or at least, indeed, more alert than the specialist scientists who originated these theories. 126 00:12:08.560 --> 00:12:10.880 Philosophy does have a job to do, in other words. 127 00:12:11.460 --> 00:12:16.360 In short, philosophy and science are hand in glove with one another, 128 00:12:16.520 --> 00:12:20.540 as indeed they have been since Aristotle, at least. 129 00:12:21.660 --> 00:12:27.300 Ordinary language conceptual analysis is at best a first step, useful for purposes of clarification, 130 00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:32.600 but hardly a straitjacket to constrain philosophical inquiry. 131 00:12:33.540 --> 00:12:38.540 Needless to say, scientific realism also strongly favours the natural. 132 00:12:38.540 --> 00:12:38.940 The supernatural. 133 00:12:42.680 --> 00:12:48.480 Smart's book Philosophy and Scientific Realism, 1962, became a classic. 134 00:12:48.680 --> 00:12:53.040 Both the identity theory and scientific realism swept the world. 135 00:12:53.740 --> 00:12:57.560 The identity theory of mine in particular spawned a thousand variants 136 00:12:57.560 --> 00:13:04.500 as the world's philosophers worked through some of the more tricky and less believable consequences of his position. 137 00:13:05.540 --> 00:13:07.540 But it must be said that these days, 138 00:13:07.540 --> 00:13:14.800 textbooks on the philosophy of mind all contain an early section explaining Smart's and Place's views. 139 00:13:15.820 --> 00:13:19.020 The legacy of scientific realism is everywhere too, 140 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:26.440 in the strong emphasis on the continuity of science that characterised much late 20th century philosophy. 141 00:13:26.860 --> 00:13:30.980 The relationship has not always been smooth, of course. 142 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:37.460 Smart also wrote a well-received monograph defending act-utility, 143 00:13:37.480 --> 00:13:37.520 and the 144 00:13:35.540 --> 00:13:36.540 The 145 00:13:37.520 --> 00:13:38.300 ! 146 00:13:48.740 --> 00:13:50.140 fundamentally 147 00:13:50.140 --> 00:13:51.500 ! 148 00:13:51.500 --> 00:13:51.580 ! 149 00:13:51.580 --> 00:13:51.720 fundamentally 150 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:57.680 is very much a 151 00:14:01.380 --> 00:14:04.180 is very much a 152 00:14:07.520 --> 00:14:13.220 Peter Singer and Garrett Cullity will agree. Smart's little book, like all his writings, 153 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:19.180 is brilliantly clear and deceptively simple. You might not agree, but you have to respect 154 00:14:19.180 --> 00:14:26.500 the force of the position. Smart had a small department in the 1950s, but a brilliant one. 155 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:34.140 As Charlie Martin, a fearsome critic of Smart, was also present. Together they produced a 156 00:14:34.140 --> 00:14:39.860 shower of superb students, who all went off to Oxford and then came back to chairs in 157 00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:48.240 Australia. Ellis, Nirlik, Medlin, Deutscher. Influential were also Bradley and Hinkfess. 158 00:14:48.940 --> 00:14:55.500 Other staff present from the 1960s to the 1990s included Hughes, Chandler and Gill. 159 00:14:57.040 --> 00:15:02.980 Smart left in 1972, to be succeeded in 1974 by his former student, Graeme Nirlik, 160 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:04.120 who came from... 161 00:15:04.140 --> 00:15:05.320 a chair at Sydney. 162 00:15:06.300 --> 00:15:08.000 Nerlich was much influenced by 163 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.060 scientific realism. His 164 00:15:10.060 --> 00:15:12.140 main contribution has been to work 165 00:15:12.140 --> 00:15:13.960 through the various confusions about 166 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:15.980 the theory of relativity made by 167 00:15:15.980 --> 00:15:17.640 famous scientists and others. 168 00:15:18.920 --> 00:15:20.000 Developing an argument 169 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:21.540 of currency, he argued in his book 170 00:15:21.540 --> 00:15:23.400 The Shape of Space, 1976 171 00:15:24.440 --> 00:15:25.980 that space is a real 172 00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:27.900 material thing, just as real 173 00:15:27.900 --> 00:15:29.280 as the objects in it. 174 00:15:30.620 --> 00:15:32.160 This has been a contentious 175 00:15:32.160 --> 00:15:34.240 issue ever since the 17th 176 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:35.700 century when Leibniz 177 00:15:35.700 --> 00:15:37.860 and Newton disagreed 178 00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:39.980 over it, Leibniz holding 179 00:15:39.980 --> 00:15:41.800 against Newton that space 180 00:15:41.800 --> 00:15:43.920 is not an independent entity 181 00:15:43.920 --> 00:15:46.100 but no more than an order 182 00:15:46.100 --> 00:15:47.840 of relations between bodies. 183 00:15:49.040 --> 00:15:50.020 To give you the 184 00:15:50.020 --> 00:15:52.060 flavour of this dispute, consider the following 185 00:15:52.060 --> 00:15:54.000 question. What's between my hands 186 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:54.340 now? 187 00:15:55.480 --> 00:15:58.040 Well, you might think that there's air between my 188 00:15:58.040 --> 00:16:00.020 hands now, so put my 189 00:16:00.020 --> 00:16:01.880 hands in a vacuum and ask the same question 190 00:16:01.880 --> 00:16:03.780 again. What's between my hands now? 191 00:16:04.500 --> 00:16:05.600 Well, if you say 192 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:07.920 there's nothing between my hands 193 00:16:07.920 --> 00:16:09.740 now, then what's the 194 00:16:09.740 --> 00:16:11.860 difference between that and this? 195 00:16:13.160 --> 00:16:13.860 That's 196 00:16:13.860 --> 00:16:15.740 nothing between my 197 00:16:15.740 --> 00:16:17.620 hands now. This 198 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:19.380 is something between 199 00:16:19.380 --> 00:16:21.960 my hands now. Empty space. 200 00:16:22.260 --> 00:16:24.020 Empty space, therefore 201 00:16:24.020 --> 00:16:25.140 being real. 202 00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:27.820 Now, that's a very quick 203 00:16:27.820 --> 00:16:29.260 and dirty argument and 204 00:16:29.260 --> 00:16:31.800 it's the beginning of a huge amount of 205 00:16:31.800 --> 00:16:33.720 argumentation. I don't pretend that it's any 206 00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:35.380 more than a first step. 207 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:37.540 But if you want a model 208 00:16:37.540 --> 00:16:39.680 of how to write the philosophy 209 00:16:39.680 --> 00:16:41.580 of physics in such a way 210 00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:43.140 as to make its conclusions 211 00:16:43.140 --> 00:16:45.740 belief-worthy, read 212 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:47.500 Nerlick's book and 213 00:16:47.500 --> 00:16:49.500 don't bother with those books 214 00:16:49.500 --> 00:16:51.480 on pop physics written 215 00:16:51.480 --> 00:16:53.260 by famous overseas 216 00:16:53.260 --> 00:16:55.640 physicists who shall remain 217 00:16:55.640 --> 00:16:56.940 nameless here. 218 00:16:59.000 --> 00:16:59.640 Nerlick 219 00:16:59.640 --> 00:17:00.840 also wrote a book on ethics. 220 00:17:01.800 --> 00:17:03.660 Arguing in characteristic scientific 221 00:17:03.660 --> 00:17:06.220 realist fashion that it should be naturalised 222 00:17:06.220 --> 00:17:07.580 by grounding it 223 00:17:07.580 --> 00:17:09.720 in the beliefs and desires of 224 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:11.840 natural and social creatures such as 225 00:17:11.840 --> 00:17:12.280 ourselves. 226 00:17:14.080 --> 00:17:16.000 Now, one thing not mentioned 227 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:17.300 so far is logic. 228 00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:19.880 Philosophy has 229 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:21.600 been hand-in-glove with logic 230 00:17:21.600 --> 00:17:23.080 since Aristotle also. 231 00:17:24.600 --> 00:17:25.900 Scientific realism did not 232 00:17:25.900 --> 00:17:27.700 shirk from using modern symbolic 233 00:17:27.700 --> 00:17:29.320 logic deriving from 234 00:17:29.320 --> 00:17:31.040 Frege, 1879. 235 00:17:32.060 --> 00:17:33.320 At this point 236 00:17:33.320 --> 00:17:35.180 I want to briefly mention my own work. 237 00:17:35.980 --> 00:17:37.340 Australia is also 238 00:17:37.340 --> 00:17:39.380 well known internationally for 239 00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:41.500 its contributions to logic, particularly 240 00:17:41.500 --> 00:17:43.040 the theory of 241 00:17:43.040 --> 00:17:44.180 inconsistency. 242 00:17:45.800 --> 00:17:47.080 Humans show a 243 00:17:47.080 --> 00:17:48.840 capacity to tolerate 244 00:17:48.840 --> 00:17:50.760 contradictions in their beliefs 245 00:17:50.760 --> 00:17:53.240 without having their reasoning 246 00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:55.360 collapse. This is 247 00:17:55.360 --> 00:17:57.420 not something that Aristotle or 248 00:17:57.420 --> 00:17:59.400 Frege took into account 249 00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:01.440 but it is important. 250 00:18:03.020 --> 00:18:04.780 For example, there are logical 251 00:18:04.780 --> 00:18:06.820 puzzles such as the liar paradox. 252 00:18:07.060 --> 00:18:08.780 The liar paradox is this sentence 253 00:18:08.780 --> 00:18:09.420 is false. 254 00:18:10.440 --> 00:18:12.420 Think about that. If it's true 255 00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:14.540 then it's false and if it's false 256 00:18:14.540 --> 00:18:16.920 then it's true. So it's both 257 00:18:16.920 --> 00:18:18.860 true and false, a real 258 00:18:18.860 --> 00:18:20.780 live true contradiction. 259 00:18:22.020 --> 00:18:22.760 If this 260 00:18:22.760 --> 00:18:24.780 sounds like trivial logic chopping to 261 00:18:24.780 --> 00:18:26.800 you, reflect that it isn't easy 262 00:18:26.800 --> 00:18:28.780 to say how to fix it 263 00:18:28.780 --> 00:18:30.940 up. And it turns 264 00:18:30.940 --> 00:18:31.500 out to have 265 00:18:31.800 --> 00:18:33.520 profound consequences for our theories 266 00:18:33.520 --> 00:18:34.760 of language and logic. 267 00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:37.820 A few years ago I wrote a book called 268 00:18:37.820 --> 00:18:39.700 Inconsistent Mathematics, 1995, 269 00:18:41.080 --> 00:18:42.600 which proposed to start a new mathematics 270 00:18:42.600 --> 00:18:44.140 which tolerates contradictions 271 00:18:44.140 --> 00:18:46.600 and demonstrates that rigorous 272 00:18:46.600 --> 00:18:49.100 rational structure does not collapse 273 00:18:49.100 --> 00:18:50.060 in their presence. 274 00:18:52.280 --> 00:18:54.480 I've lately been interested in the visual paradoxes 275 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:56.580 such as those to be found in 276 00:18:56.580 --> 00:18:57.740 M.C. Escher, 277 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:00.780 endeavoring to find mathematical representations 278 00:19:00.780 --> 00:19:02.820 for these using the tools of 279 00:19:02.820 --> 00:19:03.680 inconsistent mathematics. 280 00:19:04.460 --> 00:19:06.820 I remain a scientific realist 281 00:19:06.820 --> 00:19:09.600 and an identity theorist, but it seems 282 00:19:09.600 --> 00:19:12.220 to me that these can be reconciled with Buddhism 283 00:19:12.220 --> 00:19:15.500 properly understood. Analytical Buddhism 284 00:19:16.020 --> 00:19:17.700 is on the rise in this country too. 285 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:21.860 Well, Nalik left in 1994. 286 00:19:22.780 --> 00:19:25.580 Over the next five years, there were two 287 00:19:25.580 --> 00:19:28.340 concerted attempts to destroy the philosophy department. 288 00:19:29.140 --> 00:19:30.760 I should say, that the 289 00:19:32.140 --> 00:19:32.540 Buddhist 290 00:19:53.600 --> 00:19:58.840 had recommended that the philosophy department be merged with the anthropology department 291 00:19:58.840 --> 00:20:07.520 and, quote, as philosophers retire, they shall be replaced by social theorists, unquote. 292 00:20:08.980 --> 00:20:14.560 I pointed out that the faculty had social theorists coming out of its ears and what 293 00:20:14.560 --> 00:20:21.120 they really needed was a bit of metaphysics as a balance, but this, I'm afraid, fell on 294 00:20:21.120 --> 00:20:23.520 ears that were very deaf indeed. 295 00:20:24.420 --> 00:20:27.880 This led to a very stressful six months. 296 00:20:28.920 --> 00:20:33.960 Several senior Australian philosophers wrote in support of the department to the vice-chancellor. 297 00:20:34.220 --> 00:20:39.060 In the end, the tactic that worked was a simple refusal to collaborate. 298 00:20:39.740 --> 00:20:41.700 That's an underused tactic, by the way. 299 00:20:41.720 --> 00:20:45.020 You could all think about it instead of just going along with the pressures. 300 00:20:45.080 --> 00:20:47.300 You could simply refuse sometimes. 301 00:20:47.760 --> 00:20:49.680 It's at least to be recommended a bit. 302 00:20:51.380 --> 00:20:55.280 Okay, well, the Hughes Chair was vacant until 1998 when I was promoted. 303 00:20:55.500 --> 00:21:04.240 In 2000, another cadre of senior arts academics recommended a drastic cut in philosophy's 304 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:05.180 undergraduate offerings. 305 00:21:05.900 --> 00:21:11.000 You can see how this leads to a downward spiral of students and therefore staff. 306 00:21:11.180 --> 00:21:13.660 Yes, very threatening indeed. 307 00:21:14.220 --> 00:21:16.280 Another stressful year. 308 00:21:17.100 --> 00:21:20.140 This time, the problem was resolved by means of an agreement. 309 00:21:20.140 --> 00:21:25.400 A new agreement for several senior staff near retirement to retire and be replaced by 310 00:21:25.400 --> 00:21:26.860 tenured young philosophers. 311 00:21:27.800 --> 00:21:29.120 Memo to administrators. 312 00:21:29.900 --> 00:21:36.240 Academics are typically motivated by a love of their discipline and not typically motivated 313 00:21:36.240 --> 00:21:37.940 by fear and threats. 314 00:21:39.420 --> 00:21:44.620 This generational renewal was made possible by the generosity of spirit of the senior 315 00:21:44.620 --> 00:21:49.600 staff present at the time and they are to be thanked for it. 316 00:21:51.620 --> 00:21:57.000 All in place died in England in the year 2000. 317 00:21:57.300 --> 00:21:58.820 Remember him from Place and Smart. 318 00:21:59.640 --> 00:22:05.300 He bequeathed his brain to the Adelaide Philosophy Department to be displayed with the caption, 319 00:22:05.500 --> 00:22:09.340 did this brain contain the consciousness of UT Place? 320 00:22:10.800 --> 00:22:16.480 This is reminiscent of Jeremy Bentham's gift to the University of London. 321 00:22:16.540 --> 00:22:20.120 You'll all know that Jeremy Bentham had himself, when he died in the United States, he had 322 00:22:20.120 --> 00:22:27.020 himself stuffed and mounted at the University of London to aid their council in its deliberations. 323 00:22:28.140 --> 00:22:29.120 It's true. 324 00:22:29.340 --> 00:22:30.920 Only recently moved. 325 00:22:31.300 --> 00:22:38.880 Well I think that Place's brain is as good as Bentham's. 326 00:22:39.160 --> 00:22:43.860 It's an instructive piece of philosophy and a fine piece of dark humour. 327 00:22:44.040 --> 00:22:48.700 A worthy afterthought on his importance to Adelaide and Australian philosophy. 328 00:22:49.300 --> 00:22:50.100 It's a good thing. 329 00:22:50.120 --> 00:22:54.720 It resides in the anatomy museum right over there and you can see it on the department's 330 00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:54.960 website. 331 00:22:56.120 --> 00:23:00.240 Have a look at the website and while you're at it, look at the impossible pictures that 332 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:02.700 people working on my own project have been drawing. 333 00:23:03.080 --> 00:23:04.520 I hope you find that entertaining. 334 00:23:05.620 --> 00:23:08.960 What's the new generation department like now? 335 00:23:10.020 --> 00:23:13.840 The short answer, mostly philosophy of mind and ethics. 336 00:23:15.180 --> 00:23:17.140 Mortenson retired in 2005. 337 00:23:17.140 --> 00:23:22.940 Garrett Cullity had published his book The Moral Demands of Affluence in 2004. 338 00:23:23.540 --> 00:23:29.560 The book sets up the extreme demand on the relatively affluent, roughly that one should 339 00:23:29.560 --> 00:23:35.620 give away everything to the poor and suffering until the sacrifice outweighs the good that 340 00:23:35.620 --> 00:23:36.020 it does. 341 00:23:37.040 --> 00:23:41.800 Well while acknowledging the strength of the case for the extreme demand and the weakness 342 00:23:41.800 --> 00:23:47.120 of arguments against it, Cullity nevertheless concludes that it ultimately does. 343 00:23:49.640 --> 00:23:53.280 Cullity was promoted to Hughes Professor in 2006. 344 00:23:54.060 --> 00:23:58.100 Gerard O'Brien was also made Professor in 2007. 345 00:23:59.080 --> 00:24:04.180 The current strengths of the renewed department are cognitive science and the philosophy of 346 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:08.180 mind, that's O'Brien, Gerens, Opie, Fernandez. 347 00:24:09.180 --> 00:24:13.600 Ethics, Cullity, Gamble and Louise and aesthetics, McMahon. 348 00:24:15.120 --> 00:24:17.100 Adelaide has been strong on the philosophy of mind. 349 00:24:17.100 --> 00:24:21.980 The philosophy of mind ever since SMART and the major presence of cognitive science can 350 00:24:21.980 --> 00:24:28.880 be regarded as the triumph of the naturalising program started by SMART and PLACE so many 351 00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:29.900 years before. 352 00:24:30.700 --> 00:24:35.600 The strength in ethics also represents the continuation of an Adelaide tradition in which 353 00:24:35.600 --> 00:24:38.760 SMART and Nerlich made notable contributions. 354 00:24:39.900 --> 00:24:45.820 Well, finally, a word about philosophers at other universities. 355 00:24:47.100 --> 00:24:54.300 Flinders started in 1966 and Brian Medlin was its foundation professor of philosophy. 356 00:24:55.120 --> 00:24:58.480 Brian was one of my first teachers at the University of Queensland. 357 00:24:58.820 --> 00:25:06.920 I had two inspiring philosophy teachers, Brian and Don Madison, as different as chalk and cheese. 358 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:11.220 Medlin, tall, dark and Mephistophelian. 359 00:25:11.480 --> 00:25:16.660 Madison, short, bald, feisty, American West Coast. 360 00:25:17.580 --> 00:25:21.580 They were good mates but in the seminars the sparks flew. 361 00:25:21.940 --> 00:25:24.640 It was a wonderful experience for an undergraduate. 362 00:25:26.040 --> 00:25:31.700 Medlin got the identity theory and scientific realism from SMART and I got them from Medlin. 363 00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:36.240 Madison made me read Wittgenstein, forwards, backwards and sideways. 364 00:25:36.920 --> 00:25:43.360 It is a shame, I think, that students are not made to read Wittgenstein much anymore. 365 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:47.080 Medlin published several important books. 366 00:25:47.080 --> 00:25:50.220 He wrote important papers defending the identity theory from various objections. 367 00:25:51.080 --> 00:25:57.500 Both Medlin and Madison took their students seriously, listening to what we had to say before stomping on us. 368 00:25:59.380 --> 00:26:01.160 I'm grateful for the experience. 369 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:07.580 Other prominent people at Flinders have been O'Hare, Hunt, Allen and Burns. 370 00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:14.760 Sadly, Flinders' administration has let the numbers of philosophy teachers drop. 371 00:26:14.760 --> 00:26:22.700 A great shame for a department that has contained several first-rate thinkers and produced some fine students. 372 00:26:23.740 --> 00:26:26.660 Finally, there's the University of South Australia. 373 00:26:27.220 --> 00:26:34.540 There was a period in the early 1990s when there were enough good philosophers there to form a critical mass. 374 00:26:35.560 --> 00:26:44.220 Unfortunately, the administration at the time was not well disposed towards philosophy and numbers have dropped off. 375 00:26:44.760 --> 00:26:48.780 The main people have been Peter Woolcock, Sue Knight and Peter Laskis. 376 00:26:49.660 --> 00:26:52.080 Well, so much for my story. 377 00:26:52.660 --> 00:26:56.180 I hope you found it entertaining and instructive. 378 00:26:56.380 --> 00:27:04.560 South Australia's contributions to world philosophy have been very significant indeed and widely recognised as such. 379 00:27:04.820 --> 00:27:09.500 South Australian philosophers have been major players on the world stage. 380 00:27:09.880 --> 00:27:10.700 Thank you. 381 00:27:19.940 --> 00:27:24.640 So, you will have noticed that there weren't very many women in that story. 382 00:27:26.860 --> 00:27:33.540 And alas, philosophy is a very male-dominated discipline. 383 00:27:34.300 --> 00:27:39.160 If I asked you to name any philosophers you might come up with, 384 00:27:39.300 --> 00:27:43.320 people such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, 385 00:27:43.320 --> 00:27:46.000 Aquinas, Augustine, 386 00:27:46.080 --> 00:27:50.080 perhaps you know about Descartes, Locke, Hume. 387 00:27:51.600 --> 00:27:55.620 And maybe, if you get to the 20th century, 388 00:27:55.740 --> 00:28:06.080 you could name people like Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Warnock, Simone de Beauvoir, perhaps Hannah Arendt. 389 00:28:07.560 --> 00:28:12.300 In Australia, the situation is almost worse. 390 00:28:12.300 --> 00:28:17.140 Well, at least historically, it was almost worse than in other places. 391 00:28:17.780 --> 00:28:27.100 When I started to do the research for this little sketch, if you like, of a history of women in Australian philosophy, 392 00:28:27.740 --> 00:28:31.900 I asked Jack Smart about women in the profession. 393 00:28:32.540 --> 00:28:34.840 And he said, oh, women. 394 00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:38.500 Well, there weren't any who were really any good. 395 00:28:39.960 --> 00:28:40.540 LAUGHTER 396 00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:45.760 And then he said, oh, no, of course, Dorothy Mitchell. 397 00:28:46.520 --> 00:28:51.120 She taught Greek at La Trobe. 398 00:28:51.420 --> 00:28:55.640 You know, when the cleaning ladies were on strike, 399 00:28:55.820 --> 00:29:00.960 they were so impressed that she had Greek books that they kept on cleaning her room. 400 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:02.240 LAUGHTER 401 00:29:05.420 --> 00:29:08.520