Short Address: Mini-Philosophy Conference 2007*

	2007 has been another interesting year for our philosophy group. We have presented, represented and debated a wide range of topics. Paul Reisner gave us a talk on classical Epicureanism; in March I gave a paper on the Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu; in April we looked at the phenomenon of convergence of electronic devices and genres; in May we debated ‘exits’ from Iraq; in June Francesco Amati examined science and ideology; in July Lindsay Mell presented “something to believe in....” In August we looked at virtual reality and its implications for rewriting culture; in September we looked at the necessary preconditions for a democratic society; and, in October I looked at the phenomenal nature of freedom and how political freedom/s might be advanced. All in all, an interesting year and we must thank our presenters for such an interesting mix of papers and forums. (1)

	Our discussions, when of an historical nature, have inspired me to examine the controversial topic: “how is it possible for us to go about ‘doing history’?” To this end I ended up writing twelve short monographs on various themes involved in my perception of what might be necessary to successfully complete this type of task. Today I will read extracts from my ninth paper (written with this conference in mind). (2)

	My major thesis is this: tasks are performed as if in accordance with prevailing meta-textual conventions as if like recipes, and, like recipes, mistakes are often sequential in orientation. Therefore, noting such mistakes should help assist us in this task of ‘doing history’ whether we be amateurs or professionals, philosophers or non-philosophers, etc. (3)

	Hopefully, this paper will promote an interesting debate on this topic: that much historical error can be prevented or overcome, rectified, through a recognition of sequential error, and, that history, generally, is done through a rectification of such error. (4)

	Let us look forward to another interesting year…! (5)

							  Noël Tointon, Sydney, 11.11.07.

Latest version of paper: www.homestead.com/noelshomepage/noelshomepage3.html