It has been said that there are not different “types” or categories of music, only good music and bad music. How can we know the difference between good and bad music however? Well, on some accounts, there are indeed different types (‘low’ vs ‘high’ art), some of which are by definition bad, others good. Yet, on other accounts, music is music – there are no essential differences in kind, and it is simply each listener’s favorable or unfavorable reaction to any given song or piece of music that decides its quality. In very broad strokes, these two contrasting orientations represent attitudes common in modernist and postmodernist theories, respectively. In the former, Western classical music was privileged (unjustly, in some respects) above all other kinds. However, the latter orientation, which is currently in fashion, seems to reduce all musical meaning and appraisal to little more than our own mental projections. In this presentation, a third, alternative way to identify musical “types” is proposed, one that seeks to illuminate meaningful musical distinctions in the natures and functions of three musical kinds (folk, mass, and art music), with some surprising results. A brief piano performance will precede the talk.
Monday, December 11, 2017 at 6pm. This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $10, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319)
Jason Cutmore is a concert pianist, teacher, and the founder and director of the Canadian music festival, Alberta Pianofest. He has performed solo piano and collaborative recitals across much of North America, Europe, and India, and has published articles in peer review journals and trade magazines. Mr Cutmore lives in New York City, and is currently completing a Master’s degree in Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center.
SEPTEMBER 19, 2016: THE ETHICAL COSTS OF UPWARD MOBILITY
It is well-known that upward mobility in the United States is increasingly rare. But what are the costs for those who do make it? Philosopher Jennifer M. Morton argues that one cost that is often overlooked is ethical. Moving up can require that in order to gain educational and career opportunities that will propel one into the middle-class one has to make difficult sacrifices in many areas of one’s life that one finds valuable—one’s relationships with family and friends, one’s sense of cultural identity, and one’s place in one’s community. These costs are ‘ethical’ because they affect aspects of one’s life that give it value and meaning. How should we think about these trade-offs? Are they inevitable? And how can we help those on this path contend with these ethical challenges? Join us for this important discussion.
Monday, September 19 at 6pm. This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $10, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319)
Jennifer M. Morton is an assistant professor of philosophy at the City College of New York and a senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and her A.B. from Princeton University. Professor Morton has published numerous journal articles in philosophy of action, moral philosophy, philosophy of education, and political philosophy. She is currently working on a book on the ethics of upward mobility.
JUNE 9, 2016: RELIGION IN DEMOCRATIC POLITICS
What role should religious conviction play in democratic policy-making? Features of modern democratic societies intersect to render this question both essential and problematic. Government policy in a democracy is supposed to reflect the will of the citizens, and in those societies citizens are free to practice any religion that they choose. So why shouldn’t democratic laws be based on, say, the moral teachings of the Bible, if the majority of the citizens desire it? Well, modern citizens often disagree about religion, both in terms of its truth and its relevance. Does this fact of religious disagreement mean that each citizen should avoid voting on the basis of their own religious conviction, or would that make modern democracy objectionably secular, inconsistent with the religious freedom a democratic society is supposed to secure? In this talk, Robert Talisse explores these questions and defends the view that, indeed, religious citizens have a moral duty to avoid voting on the basis of their religious conviction, but that this constraint is not inconsistent with freedom of religion.
Thursday, June 9 at 6pm. This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $9, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319)
Robert B.Talisse is Jones Professor of Philosophy and Chairperson of the Philosophy Department at Vanderbilt University. He specializes in political philosophy, democratic theory, and ethics. He is the author of many scholarly essays and several books, including Democracy and Moral Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and, most recently, Engaging Political Philosophy (Routledge, 2016). Talisse earned his PhD in Philosophy in 2001 from the City University of New York.
MAY 17, 2016: LOOKING FOR LOVE (IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES)
“All you need is love.” So sayeth the gospel of John (Lennon). But what is love? What sorts of things can be the object of our love? Do we love what we love in virtue of their qualities, in virtue of something else, or “just because.” How important is love? In recent years philosophers have addressed (or dodged) these questions. I’ll tell you something about what they’ve been saying and writing, but mostly I’ll be trying to get you to help me answer these questions.
Join philosopher Dale Jamieson in this collaborative investigation into the nature of love, that most essential and yet most intellectually elusive of human emotions.
Tuesday, May 17, at 6pm. This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $9, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319
Dale Jamieson is Chair of the Environmental Studies Department; Professor of Environmental Studies and of Philosophy; and the Founding Director of Environmental Studies and Animal Studies at New York University. He has written extensively on the environment, climate change, and our relationship to animals. He is the author of several works, including Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle to Stop Climate Change Failed–and What It Means For Our Future and, most recently, Love in the Anthropocene (with Bonnie Nazdam).
INFINITE HOPE AS A PERSONAL AND POLITICAL VIRTUE
Tuesday, April 5, 2016, 6pm.
One insight unites the political thought of Martin Luther King, the personal and political courage of such figures as Nelson Mandela and Viktor Frankl, and the global humanitarianism of Paul Farmer. It is the realization that hope—and in particular infinite hope—is essential to resilience in the face of adversity, effective resistance to injustice, and our capacity to promote “moral repair” of the world. Infinite hope is unshakeable confidence that even the worst malevolence and evil cannot extinguish all that is good in the world, or destroy the human capacity to do good. Join the philosopher Michele Moody-Adams as she helps us consider the moral and political implications of accepting that such hope is both a personal and a political virtue.
This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $9, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319)
Michele Moody-Adams is Joseph Straus Professor of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory at Columbia University, where she served as Dean of Columbia College and Vice President for Undergraduate Education from 2009-2011. Moody-Adams has published on such topics as equality and social justice, moral psychology and the virtues, and the philosophical implications of gender and race. Her current work includes articles on academic freedom, equal educational opportunity, and democratic disagreement.
THE ART IN LIVING
A video of this event can be found here.
Wednesday, March 23, 6pm.
Will close attention to the beauty and ugliness of life make us better people? The philosopher David Kaspar believes it does, and that the unaesthetic life, like the unexamined one, is not worth living. Join us as Kaspar discusses how a good life includes not only acting rightly and choosing wisely, but living with style.
This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $9, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319)
David Kaspar is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University. He works primarily in ethics and in social and political philosophy. His book Intuitionism was published in 2012.
LIFE UNFREE: MEANING, PURPOSE, AND PUNISHMENT WITHOUT FREE WILL
Monday, January 11, 2016, 6pm,
Free will is an illusion. Who we are and what we do is the result of factors beyond our control. So claim many philosophers and cognitive scientists, armed with empirical data and reasoned arguments. But their conclusion seems intolerable. Without freedom, in what sense are our lives and actions really ours? And if what we do isn’t under our control, how can we be held responsible for our doing it? What sense could we make of the idea of criminal justice? Is a life without free will a life worth living? Philosopher and free will skeptic Gregg D. Caruso thinks it is. Join us as he discusses how we, as individuals and a society, can make sense of life without free will.
The Cornelia Street Café is located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $9, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319).
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: BUDDHISM, MARXISM, AND THE CRITIQUE OF CONTEMPORARY CAPITALIST CULTURE
A video of this event can be found here.
Please join us on Tuesday, October 20th at 6pm, at The Cornelia Street Café, as we welcome world-renowned philosopher and logician Graham Priest, as he discusses the surprising connections among Buddhist and Marxist critiques of the very conditions that not only support our capitalist society but contribute significantly to the sort of suffering with which we have become all too familiar.
Priest, perhaps most well-known for his robust defense of the view that there are true contradictions, has long found fruitful ways of bringing his knowledge of Asian thought and practice to bear on questions that have defined philosophy’s European tradition. This collaboration of understanding continues in this talk.
The Cornelia Street Café is located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $9, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319).
WHO MAKES THE RULES AROUND HERE? A WORKSHOP FOR YOUNG PHILOSOPHERS
As children, we are groomed for society through the introduction of a system of rules, requirements, and directives that we are expected to internalize and then use to regulate our lives. But who says we have to live our lives this way rather than some other way? God? Other people? And why should we listen anyway? Why can’t we each decide for ourselves how to live? Join us for this philosophical workshop for young thinkers (grades 6-12), as we explore answers to these questions and more. All you need to bring is your curiosity and your willingness to participate in and follow the discussion where it leads.
There is no required preparation or reading required, but those who want to get a head start on thinking about some of the issues we will discuss can read Plato’s short dialogue Euthyphro.
When: Sunday, April 26 at 3pm
Where: Word Up: Community Bookshop – Liberia Comunitaria, 2113 Amsterdam Avenue (at the corner of 165th Street) New York, NY 10032 Tel (347) 688-4456
Cost: This event is free and open to the public, but there is limited space available. Please RSVP below.
HOW TO BE AN ATHEIST
Monday, February 23, 2015, 7-9pm
Please join us in conversation with Philip Kitcher as we discuss themes from his new book, Life after Faith. While atheist writers gleefully cataloguing religion’s intellectual and moral vices have been numerous of late, too few have treated their target with the respect it deserves for successfully providing emotional comfort and social cohesion. Kitcher changes that, acknowledging religion’s virtues even as he constructs a secular humanist alternative to replace it.
Where: Book Culture, 536 West 112th St., NY, NY (212) 865-1588
This event is free.
HAPPINESS
Sunday, February 8, 2015, 3-5pm.
Let’s talk about happiness. Let’s talk about what it is and why we want it. Let’s talk about why so many of us don’t seem to have enough of it, if we have any. Let’s talk about why we talk so much about it. Let’s talk with Christine Vitrano, a philosopher at Brooklyn College, who’s written a book about it.
Where: COFFEED 37-18 Northern Boulevard Long Island City, NY 11101, Tel: (718) 606-1299, http://coffeednyc.com
LEONARD COHEN AND PHILOSOPHY
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Please join us as authors Babette Babich, Christopher Ketcham, and Lisa Warenski read selections from Leonard Cohen and Philosophy , edited by Jason Holt (2014 from Open Court Publishing Company).
With his uniquely compelling voice and unparalleled depth of artistic vision, the aesthetic quality and intellectual merit of Cohen’s work are above dispute; here, for the first time, a team of philosophers takes an in-depth look at its real significance. Join us for an evening of philosophical reflection on the work of this most enigmatic and mysterious pop-star poet.
Babette Babich, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University and the author of The Hallelujah Effect: Philosophical Reflections on Music, Performance, Practice, and Technology (2013).
Christopher Ketcham, PhD, writes on social justice, philosophy and popular culture, and risk management, where he has contributed to and edited two books.
Lisa Warenski, PhD, is a philosopher who specializes in epistemology and metaphysics. She teaches at City College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
“Cohen famously said that there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in. This book takes the brilliant light of Cohen’s words and shines it into Plato’s cave with such strength the prisoners are not only free but see the sun.” — Kimberly Baltzer-Jaray, author of Doorway to the World of Essences
Time: 6:00 pm
Where: Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.)
Admission is $8, which includes the price of one drink.
UNVEILING PUBLIC EDUCATION: WHY WE HAVE IT AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 6-8pm.
Please join the Gotham Philosophical Society in a conversation with James Kallusky (Ed.D.), Vice President of Strategic Growth for Up2Us, on the past, present, and possible future of public education. Do you know how public education started in this country and for what purpose? Dr. Kallusky has some answers we believe are worth discussing. Do you have ideas on what you think public education might be? Do you have your doubts that public education even should be? We’d like you to share them with us.
Where: Word Up Community Book Shop, 2113 Amsterdam Avenue (at the corner of 165th Street) New York, NY 10032 Tel (347) 688-4456