Are We Our Own Slaves?

Tonight's Philosophy Cafe at De Vrije Ruimte was again a blast! Under the unmatched leadership of Pieter Mostert, we discussed the question "Are we slaves of ourselves?" using various techniques. We learned and practiced the six ways of refutation classified by the Romans:

1. ab incerto 
2. ab incredibili 
3. ab impossibili 
4. ab inconsequente
5. ab indecente 
6. ab incommode

Also we learned how to define things according to Aristotle, based on inclusion and exclusion.

I came up with this definition of a slave: Slave is somebody who is unaware of his/her true motives. In that sense, all of us are slaves to a greater or lesser degree.

There was a 15-year-old guy from South Africa at the cafe called Bernard. He spoke Afrikaans, which, although it is very similar to Dutch, I found hard to comprehend. Bernard was active in discussions and struck me as a sincere and intelligent young man.

By the way, tomorrow is Anne Sophie's second day at De Vrije Ruimte school! Her first day on Monday was a success. Even though she was quite shy in the morning, we had difficulty taking her home in the afternoon as she was so much enjoying playing with other kids!