PHILOSOPHICAL CONGRESS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27047, 23 May 1953, Page 2

PHILOSOPHICAL CONGRESS

OPENING MEETINGS YESTERDAY “One of the tasks of philosophy is to clarify our ideas on many subjects," said Professor G. E. Hughes, of Victoria University College, speaking to an audience of about 60 at the New Zealand Philosophical Congress which began in Christchurch yesterday. “New techniques in formal logic have given us new ways of carrying out lis sort of clarification, and logicians have recently been vorkhg in this way on moral conceptions such as obligation.” ■ •

Speaking on “Some Moral Paradoxes," Professor Hughes showed that certain apparently true statements in the field of ethics implied others which were clearly not true. “The conclusion from these paradoxes," said Professor Hughes, “must be that our moral notions are vaguer than we realised. Logic cannot tell us what we ought to do, but it may help us to understand more clearly what we mean when we talk about ‘rights’ and ‘duties.’ ’•

At the evening meeting Mr F. J. Bennett discussea a problem in symbolic logic. Both meetings were marked by vigorous discussion, one of the notable things about the congress being the wide variety of philosophical positions represented. The afternoon meeting was chaired by the Rector of Canterbury University .College (Dr. H. R. Hulme), and the evening meeting by Mr H. Hudson, of Victoria University College. Delegates to the congress began to arrive in Christchurch on Thursday evening, and those from the North Island arrived yesterday morning. They have come from all. parts of New Zealand, and one. Professor J. J. C. Smart, flew from Adelaide for the occasion. Most of the delegates are staying at the homes of Christchurch residents, including a number of members of the Canterbury College staff, v T^ ay l® nieetinss will be addressed by Mr R. Durrant, of Otago University, who will speak on the moral philosophy of Adam Smith, and Professor William Anderson, of Auckland, who will discuss “The Theory of Mind as Pure Potentiality.”