Events

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 Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing by Louis Groarke, by reading chapters 4 and 5. Who thought induction could be so complicated? And so much…

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 from Amazon for $14.60; used copies are for sale by Half Price Books for $8, and an e-book is $4. This book is 180 pages…

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 life and offered solutions to them that some well-known philosophers would have presumably given. Since that book covered just about every major aspect of philosophy,…

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 published in 1887. As a classic, this book is readily available in many different formats and translations. What has come to be considered the standard…

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 a clean conscious (assuming you have one now (ha, ha)), you should show up for this meeting. Watch out for those related matters, though.  …

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 reading the third treatise, “What do ascetic ideals mean?” In this treatise Nietzsche wraps up his arguments with further critiques wherever he finds shortcomings and,…

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 in some quarters. A new paperback can cost from $7 to $22 and an ebook from $2 to $10, depending on the translation. If you…

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 his concept of how the human mind is constructed and operates. In Part II he tells us all the wonderful things you can do with…

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 an eBook for about $10. Used copies are also available. For the 9th we'll read Parts I and II. Just so you know, there's nothing…

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 she succeed? This is for you to decide, and we're very interested in what you think. We're even more interested in how this might fit…

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 selected for our group. All forms of the book – hardcover, paperback, and eBook – list for $60. Fortunately, however, they can be found for…

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) is that it can arise from very simple rules but lead to highly complex, unpredictable systems. Since this book is an introductory overview of 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 the meeting, you can, of course, expect to understand how nature works. However, this creates a problem. After so many of us comprehend this, there…

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 topic broadly and includes comparisons with the caste system of India and the discriminations carried out by Nazi Germany. For the 10th we'll read Parts…

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 how caste operates, and it's not very pretty. We hope that you can join us. All of our regulars should be there, but some 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 Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson. In the last parts of her book, Wilkerson discusses the more subtle, unconscious ways caste can impact society;…

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 “The Wall” and the play “No Exit”. The Hemingway work is another short story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” All these are available online. Commentaries on…

 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 there seems to be plenty of used copies. It appears that there is no e-book available in this country. The book is about the friendship…

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 not be The Commie and the Nazi: Marx vs Heidegger. There is a possibility that we could do The Wrestler and the Fencer: Plato vs Descartes, however.…