COMMENSAL ISSUE 97

27^th June 1999 : Theo Todman

EDITORIAL

As usual, we welcome our new members to the SIG. We have fourteen new members again this time, so welcome to :-

A particular welcome to Ann Kucera, who joins us from Garland, Maryland, USA as a member of American Mensa (and ISPE) and adds to the international perspective.

Well, our first conference is now in the past. All things considered, I think it was a great success, though it would have been good to see more of you there. As it was, there were 20 of us and, from a PDG perspective, it was great to meet Alan Carr, Malcolm Burn, Michael Nisbet and John Fender as well as seeing Roger Farnworth, Alan Edmonds, Leslie Haddow and Jane Benn again. The ISPE contingent supplied an international flavour, with delegates from Alabama, Copenhagen & Budapest.

Leslie Haddow has supplied an interesting analysis of the conference, thereby saving me the effort of doing so. Where our perspectives differ, I’ve drawn attention to the fact in my usual commentary.

Thanks also to Michael Nisbet who wrote an article (included below) on the limits to agreement in philosophical discussion. This was stimulated by the polarisation of the conference into the "rationalists", of whom I’m one and for whom "proof is everything", and those who adopt a wider (but necessarily sound !) view.

I did promise a collection of write-ups from the conference. As things stand, of those papers presented by PDG members, Malcolm Burn’s has been summarised by Leslie Haddow in his conference summary below and Leslie’s own paper & Roger Farnworth’s had already appeared in Commensal. Maybe Alan Edmonds will let us have his talk in writing in due course. This leaves mine. As there’s room, you’ve got it inflicted on you in less abbreviated form than that delivered at the conference.

As this issue is late, and to allow for the holiday season, we’ve skipped a month. 15th August 1999 is the closing date for contributions to September’s Commensal (C98).

Theo