Philosophy

  We will conclude talking about myth and the mind as presented in the book When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth by Elizabeth Wayland Barber and…

First, please note that this time is different than our usual second Wednesday of the month schedule. For this session, we will begin the book, The Case Against Reality: How…

We will discuss chapters five through seven from the book, The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from our Eyes, by Donald Hoffman. Just to be safe, we will…

We will conclude our reading of The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from our Eyes by Donald Hoffman. People have reacted very differently to the thesis that Hoffman…

We are going to start reading a new book: Corruptible (2021) by Brian Klass. This book is about power and why those who abuse it so often have it. Does power really corrupt?…

We will complete our discussion of the book Corruptible by Brian Klass. Note that this group will be meeting on the third Wednesday of the month rather than our usual second…

We will be beginning a new book, Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life (2019) by Edith Hall. For the 15th we'll read through chapter 2. While we don't usually like…

We will discuss chapters 3 – 6 of Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall. Please note that while Aristotle's philosophy has helped many people, neither…

We will conclude our discussion of Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall. After having read this book, it won't matter if you've been adhering to the…

On Valentine's Day we will be starting a new book, Thought: A Very Short Introduction (2013) by Tim Bayne, a part of the Very Short Introduction series from Oxford University Press.…

  We will finish discussing the book Thought: A Very Short Introduction by Tim Bayne. A short introductory book on a broad topic can lead to some interesting disagreements with what the…

Note that this is the third Wednesday of the month, not the second Wednesday, our usual meeting day. We are starting a new book, An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing by Louis Groarke, part of the McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas.

For this meeting we will discuss the topic of “Power and Discourse” by reading three short and very accessible articles which can be found online. Powercube         https://www.powercube.net/analyse-power/…

We will continue our discussion of the book, An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing by Louis Groarke, by reading chapter 3. In this chapter, the author, having finished his survey and critique of concepts of induction falling between Aristotle and contemporary philosophy, starts to dig deeper into what Aristotle regarded as inductive reasoning. We are hoping that reading this will induce you to reason seriously about coming to our meeting so that we can induct you into our membership. Deductively, it's a no-brainer.

The MISF Philosophy Study Group plans to have its next meeting on Wednesday, June 12, at 7:00 pm via Zoom. We will be continuing our discussion of the book An Aristotelian…

For this meeting we will discuss chapters 6 and 7 of the book, An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing, by Louis Groarke. For those who might need a little persuading to attend, I have put together a notable argument:

All books about Aristotle are delightful. This is a book about Aristotle. Therefore, this book is delightful.

The next meeting of the MISF Philosophy Study Group is on Wednesday, August 14, at 7:00 pm via Zoom. We will conclude our discussion of the book, An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing, by Louis Groarke with the attendance of the author, himself.

Our book for this meeting is What Would Nietzsche Do?: Philosophical Solutions to Everyday Problems (2017) by Marcus Weeks. A paperback version of the book lists for $20 but can be had…

At our last meeting we discussed the book, What Would Nietzsche Do?: Philosophical Solutions to Everyday Problems, by Marcus Weeks. This book took various problems that people may encounter in everyday…

The MISF Philosophy Study Group meets next on Wednesday, November 13, at 7:00 pm via Zoom. For this meeting we will discuss Friedrich Nietzsche's classic, On the Genealogy of Morals, first…

We will continue our reading of On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche by discussing his Second Treatise, “'Guilt,' 'Bad Conscious,' and Related Matters.” If you wish to remain guilt-free with…

Note that this meeting is the first Monday of the month, rather than our usual second Wednesday. We will finish our discussion of On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche by…

We will be beginning a new book, The Philosophy of Freedom, by Rudolf Steiner. Originally published in 1894, this book has been translated many times and has been very influential…

During this meeting we will finish our discussion of the book, The Philosophy of Freedom, by Rudolf Steiner by reading Parts II and III. In Part I Steiner laid out…

We will begin reading Simone de Beauvoir's attempt to provide an ethical foundation for existentialism, The Ethics of Ambiguity. This book is available in paperback for about $15 and as…

We will finish discussing Simone de Beauvoir's attempt to build an ethical system for existentialist philosophy, The Ethics of Ambiguity. Not a few people didn't think it was possible. Did…

We will be embarking on a new book: How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality (1996) by Per Bak. Unfortunately, this is one of the pricier books that we have…

We will continue our discussion of Per Bak's book, How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality, by reading chapters 4-7. One of the remarkable aspects of self-organized criticality (SOC)…

We will finish our discussion of the book, How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality, by Per Bak. For those who will have read the book and will attend…

We will begin discussing a new book, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents (2020), by Isabel Wilkerson. The book focuses on race in the U.S. (Wilkerson is black), but examines the…

We will continue discussing the book, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson, by reading Sections 3 and 4. In these sections Wilkerson gets into the heart of…

The MISF Philosophy Study Group is going to have their next meeting on Wednesday, November 12, at 7:00 pm via Zoom. We will conclude our discussion of the book, Caste: The…

For this meeting we are going to discuss three different existentialist works of fiction, two by Jean Paul Sartre and one by Earnest Hemingway. The former includes the short story…

 We will be studying the book, The Boxer and the Goalkeeper: Sartre Vs Camus (2012), by Andy Martin. A new copy of this book can be had for around $20, but…

We will conclude our discussion of the book, The Boxer and the Goalkeeper: Sartre Vs Camus, by Andy Martin. In spite of rumors to the contrary, our next book will…

We will begin discussing the book, The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas (2023), by Robert Zaretsky. This book is available new for around $15 in either paperback or as…

We are finishing our discussion of the book, The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas, by Robert Zaretsky. The last parts of the book cover Weil's concepts of rootedness…

We are planning on concluding our discussion of the book, The Sovereignty of Good, by Iris Murdoch. This is a change from our earlier announcement that we would spend three…