Philosophy

We are going to be returning to Being and Time by Martin Heidegger. We will read the first three chapters of Division I of Part I, (through “The Worldhood of the World”). This is up to page 149 in the Macquarrie and Robinson translation, the “standard” English translation which, once again, can be found for free online…

For the next couple of meetings we will be reading a book you may already have in your library, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. If you don't have it, you can find it at most any bookstore or online for only a few dollars. An ebook costs about a dollar, and, best of all, you can find it…

We will finish our reading of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. By the time we're done you should be in tune with nature, in the present moment, and ready to become the next Emperor of Rome.

We will continue our discussion of modern Stoicism by reading the rest of chapter five and chapter six in A New Stoicism by Lawrence Becker. Chapter five completes his discussion of norms and motivations, while chapter six covers virtue. This should motivate you to do the virtuous thing: show up at our meeting on the 15th and let…

We are in the process of reading A New Stoicism by Lawrence Becker. He is continuing his arguments that virtue is the only good, at least for psychologically healthy people. Alas, there's always a catch.

We will conclude our reading of A New Stoicism by Lawrence Becker. This includes chapter 7, “Happiness,” and a couple of appendices. We are especially interested in having people come who consider themselves happy. Then the author can demonstrate that since they aren't stoically happy, they aren't as happy as they think they are, or as they…

We are turning to a classic book this time: The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. This is a book that should have lots of used copies floating around, or you can get it new for $10 - $15. An ebook is about the same. You may even already have one in your own library. For this…

We are finishing the book The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. While Pollyanna and Dr Pangloss might have some problem understanding Camus' point of view, they – and anyone who feels the same way as they do – are certainly welcome to come and mix with those who feel desperate and anguished and who see the…

We will be tackling a book by the contemporary Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek,The Parallax View (2006), which he calls his magnus opus. It can be found new in paperback for about $17 and as an ebook for $10. We will do chapter 1 for the 14th. According to Wikipedia Žižek has been referred to as “the Elvis of…

  We will discuss the rest of Part I of The Parallax View by Slavoj Žižek. Admittedly, this book can be a challenge. However, for the MISF Philosophy Study Group, challenge is our name. Or maybe our middle initial, anyway. But we can do this.

We will continue discussing The Parallax View by Slavoj Žižek, this time covering Part II. In this part Žižek applies his parallax metaphor to science. Reviewers, in general, think that Žižek does his best job in Part II where he contributes new insights for Continental Philosophy. Notably, these reviewers – including those who are Žižek enthusiasts ‒ also generally agree…

We will conclude our discussion of The Parallax View by Slavoj Žižek. This involves reading Part III in which Žižek covers how his philosophy works with politics. Žižek is one of the leading contemporary philosophers of Continental Philosophy (as contrasted with Analytic Philosophy). As a matter of fact, in one place he says that his goal is to…

For this meeting we have chosen to read a philosophical novel rather than our usual diet of books and articles by philosophers. The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (1857) was the last novel written by Herman Melville. A paperback copy of the book can be found for $6 - $14 new and less if used. An ebook costs only…

Because this is an election year, we have decided to read what many say is the first modern political treatise: The Prince, written in the early 16th century by Niccolò Machiavelli. Being a classic, this book is readily available just about anywhere at a reasonable cost, and may even be in your own library. A downloadable copy…

Cancelled (to be rescheduled) We will begin a discussion of the book, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (revised second edition, 1998) by Simon Wiesenthal. This book consists of a story of a German soldier asking forgiveness from the author – a Jew – for an atrocity the soldier had committed. At the…

For this meeting we have chosen a book that was very popular some years ago and has managed to retain its popularity. The book is Why Bad Things Happen to Good People (1981) by Harold Kushner, in which the author, a Jewish rabbi, tackles the problem of evil. This book should be widely available, new or used,…

We will begin a discussion of Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages (2004) by Richard E. Rubenstein. This book can be had for under $20 in paperback and for about $15 as an ebook. We will read the first four chapters. (This is a bit ambitious, but do the…

  For this meeting we will finish discussing the book Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages by Richard E. Rubenstein. We will see how illuminated we are at the end of the session. Those not illuminated enough may have their credentials reviewed.      

For this meeting we will begin reading Aldous Huxley's book, The Perennial Philosophy, which proved to be very popular when it was first published in 1945 and remains so in some quarters today. For the 10th we will read through chapter VII. You can purchase a new paperback for between $15 and $20 or an ebook for…

  We will conclude our discussion of the book, The Perennial Philosophy, by Aldous Huxley. At this meeting we will be looking for immanent arguments and comments, the sort that can transcend the beings offering them and become theses that anchor themselves absolutely in the ground of elucidation.

We will be discussing a book by Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and author of the noted book, Man's Search for Meaning. This new book, Say Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything (2020), is based on a series of lectures that Frankl gave less than a year after being liberated from a German concentration camp. He…

We are starting a new book, Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction (2014), by Jennifer Nagel. This book is a part of the Very Short Introduction series by Oxford University. A paperback costs about $12 and an ebook is around $7. For this meeting we will read the first three chapters, which cover the history of epistemology into…

We will conclude our book, Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction , by Jennifer Nagel. The last part of the book covers some of the major issues that are currently being debated in epistemology. Please come. With enough people and a little effort we should be able to take care of these problems in a couple of…

Zoom Link For this meeting we will spend our time discussing Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous by George Berkeley. First published in 1713, it has become a part of the traditional epistemological oeuvre. It is no longer in copyright and is readily available, both as a new book (usually with commentary) or used or for…

Another epistemological classic is on the agenda for this meeting – the first and one that philosophers have had to address in one way or another for twenty-four centuries: Plato's dialogue Theaetetus. You may already have this in your library. If not, it is readily available for free online. Try gutenberg.org for several formatting options. The…

For this meeting we are going to have a discussion about aesthetics. We will be using the book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton. One can find a new paperback version of this starting at around $12 and an ebook starting around $7. For the first meeting we will read the first four chapters.…

We will conclude our discussion of the book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton. In the last half of this book, the author examines what is sometimes termed “serious art.” This is quite fitting for us, since our meetings always involve what is sometimes termed “serious perlustration,” sometimes with dialectic excurses.

We are tackling one of the classics for this meeting: David Hume and his An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Published in 1748, it has profoundly influenced epistemological studies to this day. For the eighth, we'll discuss the first half, through Section VII. Since it is a classic and no longer in copyright, it can be…

We will finish discussing David Hume's classic, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. In the second half of the book Hume talks about free will and critiques miracles, among other topics. These things are still quite controversial and often ruffle feathers even 300 years later. And we intend to do just that. At least we will if…

We will begin a discussion of the book, Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind & Its Challenge to Western Thought (1999), by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. For the 9th we have a little different reading assignment: Read as much as you can of Part I, but at least the first four chapters. This is a…

We will continue with the book, Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind & Its Challenge to Western Thought, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. This is a long book and the group has decided that they do not want to spend more than one or two additional sessions on it. So, for our March meeting…

Note that April 11 is not the second Wednesday of the month, the time we have been meeting recently. We will finish discussing the book, Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind & Its Challenge to Western Thought, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. This is a long book and we hope that you have…

We will begin reading A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century (2001) by Christian Delacampagne. The paperback version retails for around $28 ($23 on Amazon), but there are used books available for less. There is no ebook edition for this title. For the 11th we will read through Part I. What is unique about this book…

We will continue reading A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century by Christian Delacampagne. For the 8th we will discuss chapters 2 and 3, in which the author covers the development of Western philosophy during the rise of Hitler and the Second World War. Interestingly, this seems to have influenced some philosophers.

We plan to conclude our discussion of A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century by Christian Delacampagne. Early in my study of philosophy I was told that if you really want to understand a philosopher, you need to understand who or what he or she is responding to. Delacampagne provides this in spades, sometimes to the…

For this meeting we are going to begin a discussion about distributive justice. First, we'll do an overview. Both the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy have articles on distributive justice. You can read either one or both of them for our next meeting. After that, we'll decide together what direction we want to go.…

We will discuss a paper by Nancy Fraser, “Social Movements vs. Disciplinary Bureaucracies: The Discourses of Social Needs” (1987) Center for Humanistic Studies Occasional Papers, Number 8, 3-37. For a copy of the paper, click here. Also, we are, actively looking for a good location to start in-person meetings again. If you know of a centrally located…

We will begin reading The Human Condition (1958) by Hannah Arendt. You can find a new paperback of this book for around $22 or an ebook for about $15. Since this is also one of Arendt's more popular and influential books there should be some used copies around. For the 9th we will read through Parts I…

We will continue our discussion of The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt by reading Parts III and IV. This is not a difficult book to read, but the arguments can be complex and even confusing. That, however, is no problem for us. We're as complex and confused as any group out there. Come and help us unravel…

We will finish up our discussion of Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition, covering Parts V and VI, in which she discusses action and the modern age, drawing her final conclusions concerning where we are now and the human condition as she perceives it. Have you come to different conclusions or have another interpretation of the…