High Street
Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire
UK
A public meeting with a short introductory talk followed by questions and discussion.
Understanding other people: a science of belief systems
Speaker: Dr Edmund Griffiths, author of “Towards a Science of Belief Systems” (Palgrave Macmillan 2014)
Thursday 30 October, 7:30pm to 9:00pm
The Mitre, corner of High St and Turl St (upstairs function room)
All welcome
Organised by Oxford Communist Corresponding Society.
About “Towards a Science of Belief Systems”
People believe in a great many things: the New Age and the new atheism, astrology and the Juche Idea, the marginal utility theory and a God in three persons. Yet most of us know almost nothing about why other people believe the things they do – or indeed about how it feels to believe them. This book presents an objective method for understanding and comparing belief systems, irrespective of their subject matter and of whether or not the investigator happens to agree with them. The method, descriptive logic, is illustrated through analyses of various phenomena, including Zoroastrianism, Dawkinsism, Fabianism, 9/11 Truth, ‘alternative’ Egyptology, Gnosticism, flying saucer sightings, and the hymns of Charles Wesley. Special attention is given to beliefs that are not supposed to be wholly believed, and to how descriptive logic relates to the materialist conception of history. The book also outlines a new theory of superstition.