In We Who Wrestle with God, Dr. Peterson guides us through the ancient, foundational stories of the Western world. In riveting detail, he analyzes the Biblical accounts of rebellion, sacrifice, suffering, and triumph that stabilize, inspire, and unite us culturally and psychologically. Adam and Eve and the eternal fall of mankind; the resentful and ultimately murderous war of Cain and Abel; the cataclysmic flood of Noah; the spectacular collapse of the Tower of Babel; Abraham’s terrible adventure; and the epic of Moses and the Israelites. What could such stories possibly mean? What force wrote and assembled them over the long centuries? How did they bring our spirits and the world together, and point us in the same direction?

It is time for us to understand such things, scientifically and spiritually; to become conscious of the structure of our souls and our societies; and to see ourselves and others as if for the first time.

Join Elijah as he discovers the Voice of God in the dictates of his own conscience and Jonah confronting hell itself in the belly of the whale because he failed to listen and act. Set yourself straight in intent, aim, and purpose as you begin to more deeply understand the structure of your society and your soul. Journey with Dr. Peterson through the greatest stories ever told.

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"The psychoanalyst is in a position to study the human reality behind religion as well as behind nonreligious symbol systems. He finds that the question is not whether man returns to religion and believes in God, but whether he lives love and thinks truth." ⎯ Erich Fromm (Psychoanalysis and Religion)

This is an online meeting hosted by Leanna on Sunday December 8 (EST) to discuss Jordan Peterson's newly published book We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine.

To join the discussion, RSVP in advance on the main event page here (link); the video conferencing link will be available to registrants.

Instead of focusing on Peterson's analysis and writing style, we will examine the book as a cultural and historical product of our time. We shall discuss what Peterson is trying to achieve, what impact the book is supposed to have, how we are personally inspired or uninspired by the book etc.

All are welcome!

This event is brought to you by Leanna, a philosophical counsellor in training for spiritually integrated psychotherapy. She has a Master’s degree in philosophy and is a meditator in the Theravada Buddhist/Vipassana tradition.

Disclaimer: 

These discussions take place purely for historical, educational, and analytical purposes. By analyzing movies and texts our objective is to understand; we do not necessarily endorse or support any of the ideologies or messages conveyed in them.

As part of my University studies, I decided to do an exploration of faith through different mediums. I have created a Forum section on the website, (work in progress), and I would really appreciate it if people talked about what the word faith means to them. This definition is kept extremely open ended by design, as I don't want to define what it means to you. You can do this through stories, photographs, blogs, etc. Everything is welcome. Please note that this is a student project and a lot more content is yet to come.
https://shirurmalhar.wixsite.com/a-documentary-of-f-1

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001) by John Mearsheimer is a cornerstone of contemporary realist international relations theory, offering a provocative argument for the inevitability of conflict among great powers. Drawing on his theory of "offensive realism," Mearsheimer asserts that the anarchic structure of the international system compels states to seek dominance and maximize their power to ensure survival, dooming even peaceful nations to conflict and a relentless power struggle.

The book combines historical case studies with a clear theoretical framework, making it accessible to both scholars and general readers. Mearsheimer's analysis of power dynamics, particularly his discussions on rationality, balancing, hegemony, and security dilemmas, is insightful and thought-provoking. However, critics may find his deterministic view of international relations overly pessimistic, as it downplays the role of international treaties and institutions, trade and economic interdependence, and moral considerations in mitigating and managing conflict.

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This is an online meeting hosted by Yorgo on Thursday December 5 (EST) to discuss the influential ideas in John Mearsheimer's The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001)

To join the discussion, RSVP in advance on the main event page here (link); the video conferencing link will be available to registrants.

For the meeting, please read in advance Chapter 1 ("Introduction"). People who have not read the text are welcome to join and participate, but priority in the discussion will be given to people who have done the reading.

You can find a pdf of the assigned reading on the sign-up page.

All are welcome!

Disclaimer: 

These discussions take place purely for historical, educational, and analytical purposes. By analyzing movies and texts our objective is to understand; we do not necessarily endorse or support any of the ideologies or messages conveyed in them.

About the Author:

John J. Mearsheimer (1947–) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of political thought. He is a Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago where he has taught since 1982. He graduated from West Point in 1970 and then served five years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He has also been a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, Harvard University's Center for International Affairs, and the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Mearsheimer's works are widely read and debated by 21st-century students of international relations. He has been described as the most influential realist thinker of his generation. A 2017 survey of US international relations faculty ranks him third among "scholars whose work has had the greatest influence on the field of IR in the past 20 years." He has published 7 books and numerous articles in academic journals like International Security. He also frequently publishes in popular outlets like Foreign Affairs, the Economist, the London Review of Books, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.

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Thelma and Plato are concerned about your lack of sunglasses.

[JOIN HERE]

These, the best overview lectures of all time, provide a complete college course in philosophy. Beginners will get clarity and adepts will be revitalized. Thelma Zeno Lavine’s From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest (1978) is the most riveting, endearing, and politically radical philosophy lecture series ever produced.

Plato: Part III — The Divided Line

What does it mean to know? Are there grades of knowing? Can knowing the truth really set us free? Can a person’s knowing alter her being?

Well, I’m glad you asked because such questions comprise this week’s topic. Yes, it’s time for Plato’s Divided Line—the most famous diagram in the history of Western philosophy (see it here).

The journey up Plato’s ladder of knowledge takes us from eikasia (imagination), through pistis (belief), to dianoia (rational thought), and finally to noēsis (intellectual insight). At the top, reason reigns as the soul’s great liberator, fusing the mind with the eternal Forms and with the even higher principle that illuminates, organizes, and gives meaning to them—the Form of the GOOD.

Imagination’s Lowly Status

How does Plato’s dismissal of imagination make you feel? Could imagination—the capacity he most distrusts—actually give reason its power to shine (in Stephen King’s sense) universals out from particulars? Does imagination deserve to be in the basement?

Reason and Revolution

From Hegel and Marx to Herbert Marcuse, thinkers have used reason not merely as a path to personal truth but as a weapon against ideology, oppression, and the numbing illusions of daily life. Marcuse’s idea of “liberating rationality” expands Plato’s vision into the modern world, turning Plato’s metaphysical and yogic ascent into a critique of the other mother of the human soul—the social-historical-linguistic-propaganda matrix.

Where Plato seeks to free the soul from the shadows of the cave, Marcuse calls for reason and imagination to expose the ideological structures—the “one-dimensional” reality of advanced industrial society—that keep us captive.

A Brief History of “Liberating Reason”

• Plato shows reason as the means to transcend ignorance and align with truth, but his vision remained tied to a hierarchical and idealized metaphysics, whose “self-help” currents one of our members spent 4 hours mapping into an awesome diagram.
• The Enlightenment unleashed reason against superstition and tyranny, but reduced it to mere instrumental rationality, where reason began serving domination rather than freedom.
• Hegel and Marx gave reason a new, dynamic power, linking it to an organic-historical freedom project and its corporeal infrastructure, which had an intelligible logic and a possibility of real, material failure and, therewith, transformation. Marx, in particular, weaponized reason against class domination, intentionally engineered human suffering, and ideology.
• Marcuse and the Frankfurt School extended this critique, exposing how modern capitalism co-opts reason, reducing it to a tool of control. For Marcuse, only the union of reason and imagination can break through the ideological haze, revealing the possibilities of a freer, more human world.

And isn’t this tension—the liberatory and the repressive potential of reason—still alive today? Think of the sunglasses from They Live (1988) which reveal the terrifying ubiquity of human domination by the most rational—and now intelligent—machinery for marketing and consent-manufacturing ever devised. We’re experiencing the biggest Cave Challenge of all time.

TLDR;

What Marcuse calls radical subjectivity, and what Plato might call the soul’s liberation, begins with the same act: seeing through the illusions that surround us. But what happens when the imagination Plato rejected becomes essential to that vision? Doesn’t it then become dialectical, since it now needs to engage with the very conditions of perception and ideology to envision and construct alternatives to the present order?

This week, we’ll explore “these questions and more” [look, marketing rationality has even found its way here] as we climb Plato’s ladder, compare his liberating use of reason to Marcuse’s, and reflect on how the history of thought can help us Escape The Caves! Prepare to think critically about Plato’s divided line—not as an abstract relic, but as a lens to expose the hyperreal spectacle of (for the first time in history) actual, bona fide, American fascism in supreme executive power normalized through media and ideology, where class war is repackaged as cultural grievance, and reason is co-opted to perpetuate domination.

METHOD

Please watch the tiny 27-minute episode before the event. We will then replay a few short clips during the event for debate and discussion. A version with vastly improved audio can be found here:

• Thelma Lavine: From Socrates to Sartre EP04 ⟩ Plato III – Opinion vs Knowledge

Summaries, notes, event chatlogs, episode transcripts, timelines, tables, observations, and downloadable PDFs (seek the FSTS Book Vault) of the episodes we cover can be found here:

• THORR (The High Ontology Reading Room)

ABOUT PROFESSOR LAVINE

Dr. Lavine was professor of philosophy and psychology as Wells College, Brooklyn College, the University of Maryland (10 years), George Washington University (20), and George Mason University (13). She received the Outstanding Faculty Member award while at the University of Maryland and the Outstanding Professor award during her time at George Washington University.

She was not only a Dewey scholar, but a committed evangelist for American pragmatism. She really walked the walk.

View all of our coming episodes here.

[JOIN HERE]

Max Weber (1864–1920) was an important German sociologist, historian, philosopher, and economist renowned for his theory of the "Protestant Ethic," which argues that Protestant values, particularly hard work and frugality, contributed to the emergence of modern capitalism. Weber's work explored how culture and religion shape economic and social behavior, thereby subverting purely materialist theories of history.

In Chapter 5 of his most famous work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), titled "Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism", Max Weber examines how Protestant asceticism, particularly from Calvinism and Puritanism, fostered a disciplined, rational approach to life that aligned with capitalist principles. Asceticism encouraged believers to work diligently, avoid luxury, and view economic success as evidence of divine favor. This worldly asceticism, Weber argues, created a moral framework that legitimized profit-making and reinvestment. Over time, these values became detached from their spiritual roots, contributing to the emergence of a secular, rational capitalist ethic.

Weber's study highlights the transformative power of cultural, moral, and religious ideas in shaping history, economic behavior, and social structures.

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This is an online meeting hosted by Yorgo on Tuesday November 26 (EST) to discuss Chapter 5 ("Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism") of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

To join the discussion, RSVP in advance on the main event page here (link); the video conferencing link will be available to registrants.

Please read in advance Chapter 5. People who have not read the text are welcome to join and participate, but priority in the discussion will be given to people who have done the reading.

You can find a copy here, but you are free to read a different copy/translation if you prefer.

All are welcome!

Disclaimer: 

These discussions take place purely for historical, educational, and analytical purposes. By analyzing movies and texts our objective is to understand; we do not necessarily endorse or support any of the ideologies or messages conveyed in them.

The Socratic Circle on Patreon is pleased to announce its first watch party. On Monday, November 25th, from 7:30-8:30pm ET, we will hold a Zoom session during which together we will watch a video called The Age of Surveillance, produced and presented by Second Thoughts (it's available on the Second Thoughts YouTube channel, if you would like to view it in advance). After we watch the video together (it's about 23 minutes long), we will then enter into a discussion of it. Should be fun! And who knows who will be surveilling us all the while!

This event is open to all members of The Socratic Circle on Patreon (where the Zoom link will be posted a day or two prior to the event). If you are not yet a member, please join us:

www.Patreon.com/TheSocraticCircle

--Matt :)

How did people Google something in the eighteenth century?

Professor Rosenberg will explore the powerful keyword paradigm that has characterized information-search since the eighteenth century, as well as recent developments, including in AI, that put its future in question.

Wednesday, 20 November 2024
12 noon ET / 5 pm GMT / 10.30 pm IST
Register here: https://forms.gle/R4VDoFMVQKQvD8sK8

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Daniel Rosenberg is a professor of history at the University of Oregon. He is an intellectual and cultural historian with a research focus on the history of information and information graphics. In addition, he writes on a wide range of topics related to historiography, epistemology, language and visual culture. His books are Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline with Anthony Grafton (2010) and Histories of the Future with Susan Harding (2005).

Rosenberg is Editor-at-Large of Cabinet: A Quarterly of Art and Culture, where he is a frequent contributor. He also directs a digital project on historical graphics supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities entitled Time Online. Rosenberg has published on paleolithic calendars, the concept of sloth, the history of Jell-O, and the languages of planet Mars.

This lecture is organized by Fact or Value, a new forum based in Calcutta with a focus on (but not limited to) politics, literature and intellectual history. This is the fourth in a series of lectures on the nature of factual discourse. The first two were delivered by Steven Shapin (Harvard), Richard Firth Green (Ohio State), and Daryn Lehoux and Sergio Sismondo (Queen's).

Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1792) is a key element of the system of philosophy which Immanuel Kant introduced with his Critique of Pure Reason, and a work of major importance in the history of Western religious thought. It represents a great philosopher's attempt to spell out the form and content of a type of religion that would be grounded in moral reason and would meet the needs of ethical life. It includes sharply critical and boldly constructive discussions on topics not often treated by philosophers, including such traditional theological concepts as original sin and the salvation or 'justification' of a sinner, and the idea of the proper role of a church. 

In Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, Kant explores the legitimacy of religious experience. He argues that organized religion often gets in the way of genuine religious experience, thereby threatening the moral development of humanity. This argument spans four sections.

In Part One, Kant discusses whether human nature is inherently evil or inherently good. He thinks we have a predisposition to engage in good behavior, which comes in three instinctual urges: propagating the species, fostering meaningful, stable relationships with others, and respecting the moral law. Kant thinks that in addition to our inclination to be good, we have a simultaneous propensity for evil or immoral behavior. Kant suggests that we will see the truth of his thesis if we examine the evil abroad in the world around us. The state of current political and social life will convince skeptics that people are in need of moral development.

In Part Two, Kant argues that it is possible for us to become morally good by following the example of Jesus Christ, who resisted enticing temptations, and by instituting a wholehearted change in behavior.

In Part Three, Kant says it may be possible to create a society that fosters moral behavior. Such a society would emulate the ideal "church invisible," an association of individuals committed to living morally upright lives. Kant says that rituals and professions of faith are not essential for the establishment of a morally sound religious community. We can know our duty to observe the moral law without the aid of miracles or common religious practices.

In Part Four, Kant continues to criticize certain aspects of organized religion. He says that much of existing organized religion does not help people improve their moral standing. Incantations, professions of faith, and even consistent participation in religious services cannot transform the morally corrupt into the morally upright.

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As a break between Series One and Two in Kierkegaard's Works of Love, and to celebrate Kant's 300 anniversary, we will be live reading Part I of Kant's Religion Within the Bounds of Mere Reason, which is titled, "Concerning the indwelling of the evil principle alongside the good, or Of the radical evil in human nature."

This is a live reading, so we read the text out loud together with pauses for discussion.  No familiarity with Kant (or Kierkegaard) is required, but one should expect comparisons between them as we read this text.

You can sign up for the 1st meeting on Friday November 15 (EST) here (link). The video conferencing link will be available to registrants.

Meetings will be held every Friday. All future meetings can be found on the group's calendar (link).

A link to the text is available to registrants on the sign-up page.

All are welcome!

The Tao Te Ching, also spelled Dao De Jing (道德經), is a classic Chinese text attributed to Laozi (老子), an ancient Chinese philosopher. The title can be translated as "The Book of the Way and its Virtue" or "The Classic of the Way and Virtue." It is a foundational text of Taoism, a philosophical and religious tradition that emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao.

The Tao Te Ching consists of 81 short chapters or verses that offer insights and guidance on how to live a virtuous and harmonious life. The text explores the concept of the Tao, which can be understood as the fundamental principle or way that underlies and unifies the universe. The Tao is often described as something formless, eternal, and beyond human comprehension.

Key themes in the Tao Te Ching include the importance of simplicity, humility, spontaneity, and living in accordance with the natural order of things. The text encourages individuals to embrace the concept of wu-wei (無為), often translated as "non-action" or "effortless action," which suggests acting in harmony with the Tao without unnecessary striving or force.

The Tao Te Ching has been highly influential not only within Taoism but also in Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism. It has been translated into numerous languages and continues to be studied and appreciated worldwide for its philosophical and spiritual insights.

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This is an online reading and discussion group for the Tao Te Ching, one of two foundational texts of Taoism. You can sign up for the 1st meeting on Tuesday November 19 (EST) here (link). The Zoom link will be available to registrants.

Meetings will be held every Tuesday. All future meetings can be found on the group's calendar (link).

We are working through the text slowly, chapter by chapter. You can use any translations in any languages and join our meetup to share what you learned or ask any questions. During the meetup, we will provide new translation by Jason and Amon.

You can find many English translation from the following link: https://terebess.hu/english/tao/_index.html

People who have not read the text are welcome to join and participate, but priority in the discussion will be given to people who have done the reading.

All are welcome!

Thelma and Plato are concerned about your quality of soul.

[JOIN HERE]

These, the best overview lectures of all time, provide a complete college course in philosophy. Beginners will get clarity and adepts will be revitalized.

Thelma Zeno Lavine’s From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest (1978) is the most riveting (her painstaking contortionist elocution), endearing (the eerie, theremin-laced Moog soundtrack, straight from the golden age of PBS), and confrontational (her radical politics and censorship-defying critiques) philosophy lecture series ever produced.

A Journey to the Core

We’re excited to kick off our first fully-fledged philosophical foray into Plato, from whom the perennial puzzles of philosophy received their original metaphorical embodiment. Here, in Plato’s dialogues, problems such as the One and the Many, appearance-vs-reality, substance-vs-property, and perdurance-vs-change find their seminal articulation. Plato imagined (a) universals as impossibly thing-like entities in an alternative space, and (b) physical objects (if intelligible = property-having) as blobs of matter imperfectly tuning these archetypes in. This sounds imbecilic, and yet Roger Penrose, Max Tegmark, Rupert Sheldrake, Philippa Foot, and Alvin Plantinga (qualified Platonists all) are not imbeciles.

This session will focus on Plato’s pivotal role as a synthesizer. He took the clashing philosophies of the pre-Socratics—Heraclitus, with his doctrine of constant flux, and Parmenides, with his vision of unchanging being—alongside the skepticism of the Sophists, to create a framework that has shaped Western thought ever since.

Highlights

• The Socratic Method in Action: An analysis of The Republic, Book I, where Socrates confronts definitions of justice. We’ll examine why this dialogue ends in confusion, revealing both the strengths and limitations of the method.
• The Allegory of the Cave: We’ll discuss Plato’s most famous allegory, which depicts the struggle to distinguish shadow from substance, and how it still resonates in our understanding of reality and enlightenment.
• Plato’s Theory of Forms: We’ll explore what Plato meant by “forms” and how this concept unites the phenomena of our experience under the abstract, enduring truths that he believed underlie reality.

Join us as we trace the origins of Plato’s thought and discuss its continued impact on our understanding of metaphysics, knowledge, and human existence. Understanding these early expressions and metaphors is really fun because they’ve bewitched us all and we still love them. They have colonized our collective imagination and become the default settings of our Western philosophical mythology.

METHOD

Please watch the tiny 27-minute episode before the event. We will then replay a few short clips during the event for debate and discussion. A version with vastly improved audio can be found here:

• Thelma Lavine: From Socrates to Sartre EP03 ⟩ Plato II – Shadow and Substance

Summaries, notes, event chatlogs, episode transcripts, timelines, tables, observations, and downloadable PDFs (seek the FSTS Book Vault) of the episodes we cover can be found here in two days. We’ve got lots of post-Halloween bonus materials so bear with Ingrid as she uploads it all:

• THORR (The High Ontology Reading Room)

ABOUT PROFESSOR LAVINE

Dr. Lavine was professor of philosophy and psychology as Wells College, Brooklyn College, the University of Maryland (10 years), George Washington University (20), and George Mason University (13). She received the Outstanding Faculty Member award while at the University of Maryland and the Outstanding Professor award during her time at George Washington University.

She was not only a Dewey scholar, but a committed evangelist for American pragmatism. She really walked the walk.

View all of our coming episodes here.

[JOIN HERE]

We've added a second section for book program 6 (which now splits into 6A and 6B): The Ethics of Ambiguity.  Section 6B will meet on Saturday, November 16th from 11:30am-12:45pm (ET) to discuss Parts I and II, and on Saturday, November 23rd from 11:30am-12:45pm (ET) to discuss Part III. The Zoom link which will soon be sent out will work for both groups. Please feel free to mix and match or to attend all sessions--the conversation is never exactly the same. We ran two sections of the Siddhartha book program and while there was naturally some overlap the conversation did diverge in interesting ways.

Please join us on Patreon, if you haven't already: www.Patreon.com/TheSocraticCircle

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Here's the info for 6A and the link to the book from a previous post:

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Book club program #6 will feature The Ethics of Ambiguity by the 20th-century French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir--our first female author!

Here is the link to the PDF:

The Ethics of Ambiguity:

https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/ambiguity/

-------------------------------

Here's the schedule for 6A (both sessions run from 7 - 8:15pm ET):

Tuesday, November 12: Parts I & II

Tuesday, November 19: Part III

-------------------------------

**I will post the Zoom information a day or two before the 12th.

Book club sessions are open to all members! Also, though it is preferable, it is not necessary to have read for you to join a session. I look forward to discussing de Beauvoir's work with you!

About the text:The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination by Wallace Stevens is a collection of essays exploring the relationship between reality and imagination, themes Stevens often explored in his poetry. In these essays, Stevens delves into how the imagination shapes our perception of reality, arguing that it is essential to human experience and artistic creation. He suggests that imagination does not merely embellish reality; it creates meaning and beauty, enriching human life and offering a refuge in a mundane world.

Through essays like “The Noble Rider and the Sound of Words” and “Imagination as Value,” Stevens presents his belief that imagination is not a form of escapism but a necessary element of consciousness that helps people make sense of their existence. He views the poet’s role as vital in society, as poets give voice to the unseen and unrealized aspects of reality. The essays reflect Stevens’ philosophical musings on art, perception, and the complex interaction between the world as it is and the world as we imagine it to be.

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This is an online reading and discussion group for Wallace Steven's The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination. You can sign up for the 1st meeting on Tuesday November 12 (EST) here (link). The Zoom link will be available to registrants.

Meetings will be held every Tuesday. All future meetings can be found on the group's calendar (link).

Here's the schedule:

M1: The Noble Rider and the Sound of Words
M2: The Figure of the Youth as Virile Poet
M3: Three academic pieces & Effects of Analogy
M4: Imagination as Value
M5: The relations between poetry and painting

People who have not read the text are welcome to join and participate, but priority in the discussion will be given to people who have done the reading.

All are welcome!

The Basic Problems of Phenomenology presents the first English translation of Martin Heidegger's early lecture course from the Winter of 1919/1920, in which he attempts to clarify phenomenology by looking at the phenomenon of life, which he sees as the primary area of research for phenomenology. Heidegger investigates the notions of life and world, and in particular the self-world, Christianity, and science in an attempt to discern how phenomenology is the primordial science of life and how phenomenology can take account of the streaming character of life. Basic Problems of Phenomenology provides invaluable insights into the development of Heidegger's thoughts about human existence up to Being and Time. It also offers a compelling insight into the nature of the world and our ability to give an account of human life. As an account of Heidegger's early understanding of life, the text fills an important gap in the available literature and represents a crucial contribution to our understanding of the early Heidegger.

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This is an online reading and discussion group for Heidegger's Basic Problems of Phenomenology. You can sign up for the 1st meeting on Monday November 4 (EST) here (link). The Zoom link will be available to registrants.

Meetings will be held every second Monday. All future meetings can be found on the group's calendar (link).

Reading schedule:

Session 1: Sec. 1-6
Session 2: Sec. 7-8
Session 3: Sec. 9
Session 4: Sec. 10
Session 5: Sec. 11-12
Session 6: Sec. 13
Session 7: Sec. 14
Session 8: Sec. 15
Session 9: Sec. 16
Session 10: Sec. 17-18
Session 11: Sec. 19a
Session 12: Sec. 19b
Session 13: Sec. 20
Session 14: 21-22

A link to the reading is available to registrants on the sign-up page.

People who have not read the text are welcome to join and participate, but priority in the discussion will be given to people who have done the reading.

All are welcome!

Here's how I moderate:

I ask that people use the raise your hand feature prior to speaking. If you've spoken several times already, I will call others who haven't spoken yet or as much. Please refrain from giving lectures - this is a discussion group. I will cut you off if you are going on too long. Also, please refrain from bringing up other works or philosophers for discussion - a brief comment or comparison is fine, but the idea is to focus on Heidegger's thoughts in BPP!

P.S. Also check out this other reading group on Heidegger's History of the Concept of Time that has been meeting since the spring, but newcomers are still welcome.

"To return to direct democracy, the democracy of people fighting against the system, of individual men fighting against the seriality which transforms them into things, why not start here? To vote or not to vote is all the same. To abstain is in effect to confirm the new majority, whatever it may be. Whatever we may do about it, we will have done nothing if we do not fight at the same time - and that means starting today - against the system of indirect democracy which deliberately reduces us to powerlessness. We must try, each according to his own resources, to organize the vast anti-hierarchic movement which fights institutions everywhere."

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905, Paris) was a French philosopher, novelist, and playwright, best known as the leading exponent of existentialism. In 1964 he declined the Nobel Prize for Literature, which had been awarded to him “for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age.”

Please read in advance this short article: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/1973/elections.htm

Disclaimer: These discussions take place purely for historical, educational, and analytical purposes. By analyzing movies and texts our objective is to understand; we do not necessarily endorse or support any of the ideologies or messages conveyed in them.

You can join the event here: https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/events/304245944/

Euthyphro was written by Plato and published around 380 BCE. It presents us with Socrates, shortly before his trial on charges of impiety, engaging the likely fictional character of Euthyphro on the meaning of piety or holiness. The dialogue introduces the famous "Euthyphro Dilemma", which questions whether something is good because the gods command it or if the gods command it because it is good. The dialogue explores themes of ethics, religion, and knowledge, reflecting Socrates’ method of questioning and use of irony to reveal deeper truths. Euthyphro — along with The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo — together comprise the quartet of Plato’s works that are sometimes collectively called "The Trial and Death of Socrates".

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This is a live reading of the Euthyphro (i.e. we read the text out loud together with pauses for discussion). This Plato group meets on Saturdays and has previously read the Philebus, Gorgias, Critias, Laches, Timaeus, and other works including texts for contextualisation such as Gorgias’ Praise of Helen. The reading is intended for well-informed generalists even though specialists are obviously welcome. It is our aspiration to read the Platonic corpus over a long period of time.

Sign up for the 1st session on November 2 here. The video conferencing link will be available to registrants.

Meetings will be held every week on Saturday. (meetings will probably continue into 2025). Sign up for subsequent meetings through our calendar.

The host is Constantine Lerounis, a distinguished Greek philologist, author of Four Access Points to Shakespeare’s Works (in Greek) and Former Advisor to the President of the Hellenic Republic.

The text can be found here: [link to be posted on registration page]

For some background on Plato, see his entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/

This week, we will be exploring the moral concept of call of conscience and the psychological concept of self-love. Specifically, we want to understand how these two are connected to each other and to mental health and well-being. Our discussion will be based on two short texts by two giants in the field of psychotherapy:

Readings (Click to Download):

1. Abraham Maslow – Towards a Psychology of Being (3 pages): Maslow first compares Freud's idea of the superego as the authoritarian conscience and Fromm's idea of conscience within a humanistic ethics. He goes on to question whether mental health equals absence of symptoms, for sometimes distress owing to moral demand may be "healthier" than numbness.
2. Irvin D. Yalom – Existential Psychotherapy (8 pages): Existential guilt is good for you! For it is how you can find your way back to your conscience. These pages include actual examples of clinical cases from which you can learn the healing journey from self-hate to self-love.

Guiding Questions:

• How do you understand the call of conscience? What are some related concepts you can think of?
• Have you had instances where you have listened or failed to listen to your conscience? What did you feel afterwards?
• What insights did you gain from Bruce's story?
• How may you change your outlook to improve your mental health according the readings (so far)?
• (questions circling back to session 1 and 2)

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This is an online meeting hosted by Leanna on Sunday November 10 — to join the discussion, RSVP in advance on the main event page here {link); the video conferencing link will be available to registrants.

People who have not read the text are welcome to join and participate, but priority in the discussion will be given to people who have done the reading.

All are welcome!

Following Up:

This meeting is the third part of a three-part series, with each session building on the last:
(1) Self-alienation as Original Sin (completed)
(2) Resentment and Forgiveness (completed)
(3) Call of Conscience and Self-Love (this session)

Therefore, we’ll be referring to the key points from our previous session and explore how they are related to this week's topic. If you attended the previous session, we encourage you to continue the journey with us. If you didn’t attend, don’t worry! We will provide a brief recap at the start to ensure everyone is on the same page.

#integrity #authenticity #humanpotential #selfactualization #selfesteem #selfworth #selfrespect #selfcontempt #selfhate #existentialguilt

Stay in Touch:

Feel free to contact Leanna if you want to suggest or request a topic for group discussion. You are also welcome to send her a DM for personal opinions or questions you don't feel comfortable sharing in the group.

This event is brought to you by Leanna, a philosophical counsellor in training for spiritually integrated psychotherapy. She has a Master’s degree in philosophy and is a meditator in the Theravada Buddhist/Vipassana tradition.

Hello! My name is Matt Konig (Brown University, Ph.D.) and I am the director of The Socratic Circle on Patreon. I am excited to invite you to join us for the following program:

Book club program #6 will feature The Ethics of Ambiguity by the 20th-century French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir--our first female author!

Here is the link to the PDF:

The Ethics of Ambiguity:

https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/ambiguity/

-------------------------------

Here's the schedule (both sessions run from 7 - 8:15pm ET):

Tuesday, November 12: Parts I & II

Tuesday, November 19: Part III

-------------------------------

**I will post the Zoom information on Patreon a day or two before the 12th.

If you haven't already, please join us on Patreon (free membership is available):

www.Patreon.com/TheSocraticCircle

Book club sessions are open to all members! Also, though it is preferable, it is not necessary to have read for you to join a session. I look forward to discussing de Beauvoir's work with you!

EXISTENTIALIST SOCIETY.

Online Lecture/Discussion:
"Poetry and Philosophy: Martin Heidegger and Paul Celan". -

Presenter: Dr. Desmonda Lawrence. -

All welcome. - Zoom details: https://existentialistmelbourne.org/ . -

Weekly online Meetups: https://www.meetup.com/existentialist-society/ -

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@existentialistsociety8453

Interested in joining a Nietzsche Discord server? We're a growing server dedicated to the study, discussion, and debate of Friedrich Nietzsche and his ideas/works!

We are having a discussion on the Book 5 of Daybreak by Nietzsche on Nov 10th, 5pm CST, and would love to have you listen in and/ share your thoughts!

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Stop in by clicking here, and hop in general chat to introduce yourself - feel free to tell us a bit about yourself and your background, why you joined, and share with us your favorite book by Nietzsche or your favorite philosophers!

We look forward to seeing you!

Dr. Lavine transports you to Athens at its peak.

[JOIN HERE]

Join us for the most gripping introduction to Plato that you’ve ever heard as we dine with the divine Dr. Lavine as she lays out the Plato banquet in the most exciting and relevant way possible.

Lavine opens by jolting us with a mighty remembrance of the Great Before Time:

No one must have any private property whatsoever, except what is absolutely necessary. Secondly, no one must have any lodging or storehouse at all which is not open to all comers … They must live in common, attending in messes as if they were in the field … They alone of all in the city dare not have any dealings with gold or silver or even touch them or come under the same roof with them.

What is this? A religious order? A communist cell preparing for a covert mission? A sci-fi utopia bracing for interplanetary conflict? No—it’s actually Plato’s prescription for the ruling class in his Republic.

Plato Like Never Before

Plato’s name has echoed through every corner of the Western intellectual tradition. Dubbed the father of Western philosophy, he has been revered as a mystical visionary, a moralist without peer, and a dramatist whose insight shaped millennia of thought:

• Alfred North Whitehead famously quipped that all of Western philosophy is but a series of footnotes to Plato.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson was even bolder: “Plato is philosophy, and philosophy, Plato.”
• His biographers revealed him to be the Son of Apollo.
• 400 years before Saint Paul and his Christ, Plato beheld a transcendent realm of goodness, love, and beauty accessible by consciousness directly through epistemic acts.
• Anticipating Kant, Plato identified the essence of objects with the very conditions that make them intelligible to the understanding. A man ahead of his time!

Fun Highlights

• Socrates’ Trial and Death: Why Socrates accepted death over escape—and how his choice exposes the fault lines between philosophy and democracy.
• The Knowledge-Virtue Connection: If knowing the good ensures doing the good, how do we explain human weakness and moral failure?
• Athens in Chaos: From the glittering glory of Pericles’ Athens—where democracy reigned, philosophers roamed, and the wine flowed like water—to the crushing boot of Spartan rule, where dreams of equality died screaming. And yet, from the wreckage of defeated ideals and shattered egos, Plato's philosophy rose like a phoenix, crafting a vision of order so audacious it makes modern utopians look like kratom addicts.

Lavine is BRAT and will leave you feeling great. Plato isn’t just for scholars—his questions about virtue, knowledge, and power resonate in today’s world with today’s people—today.

METHOD

Please watch the tiny 27-minute episode before the event. We will then replay a few short clips during the event for debate and discussion. A version with vastly improved audio can be found here:

• Thelma Lavine: From Socrates to Sartre EP02 ⟩ Plato 01 – Virtue is Knowledge

Summaries, notes, event chatlogs, episode transcripts, timelines, tables, observations, and downloadable PDFs (seek the FSTS Book Vault) of the episodes we cover can be found here:

• THORR (The High Ontology Reading Room)

ABOUT PROFESSOR LAVINE

Dr. Lavine was professor of philosophy and psychology as Wells College, Brooklyn College, the University of Maryland (10 years), George Washington University (20), and George Mason University (13). She received the Outstanding Faculty Memberaward while at the University of Maryland and the Outstanding Professor award during her time at George Washington University.

She was not only a Dewey scholar, but a committed evangelist for American pragmatism. She really walked the walk.

View all of our coming episodes here.

[JOIN HERE]

Hi, this is Matt Konig (Ph.D. Brown University), director of The Socratic Circle on Patreon. I am offering a live chat, open to all members, on the topic of cultural relativism next Wednesday from 7:30 - 8:30pm. There is no reading to do; just show up and we'll chat about cultural relativism as a form of moral relativism. Cultural relativism is the source of much confusion for introductory students, and so the goal is for us to get clear about the basics during our chat.

If you're not yet a member, please join us on Patreon (there is free membership in addition to tier-level support options): www.Patreon.com/TheSocraticCircle

I'll send out the Zoom information a day or two before.

--Matt :)

Join us for a reading and discussion of The Other Shore by Thich Nhat Hanh! We will be reading and discussing Chapters 12, 13, and 14. The Other Shore is a new translation and commentary on the Heart Sutra, which is a classic Mahayana Buddhist text.

The discussion takes place on our server - link in the comments.

RSVP here: The Book of Job, Sun, Nov 10, 2024, 4:00 PM | Meetup

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The book of Job has been called the greatest poem ever written. It is both central to and transcendent of the biblical tradition, universal in its influence on Western literature and civilization. It is a polyphonic text, featuring a complex of perspectives and genres, probing profound existential issues: the nature of good and evil, humanity and divinity, justice and piety, innocence and suffering. There is hardly a person who has not confronted the questions posed by the text, and countless are the artists and thinkers whose imaginations have been gripped by it.

When pious Job becomes the subject of a wager between God and Satan, he is inflicted with a series of catastrophic pains, losses, and grief. In mourning and utter debasement, he dons an outfit of sackcloth and ashes, by which he symbolically regresses into a state of worthless dust. But his misery is only compounded by his would-be comforters (friends provoking him into theological debate) before God mysteriously confronts Job from out of the whirlwind.

"The traditional expectation of narrative history in China has been to find a central meaning that could effectively master chaos. Can Xue's stories are like a piece of dynamite at the foundation of this elaborate edifice..."

Can Xue (殘雪) is the pen name of contemporary Chinese writer Deng Xiaohua (鄧小華), internationally acclaimed for her unconventional, surreal, philosophical stories. Born in 1953 in Changsha, she grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China which profoundly influenced her outlook. Her parents, like many intellectuals of the time, were persecuted and forced into manual labour in the countryside. Can Xue has said her entire family was on "the verge of death" and she was deprived of a formal education. Can Xue is the author of more than a dozen novels, over a hundred novellas and short stories, many works of literary criticism, and a libretto. In recent years she has been regarded by many as the world's top contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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This is an online reading group to discuss Can Xue's surreal, experimental, philosophical short stories. We will be meeting on most Sundays, but check the group's calendar for the final schedule (meetings will be posted 1-2 weeks before they take place.)

For the 1st meeting on Sunday October 20 we will be discussing Can Xue's "Vertical Motion", from her 2011 short story collection of the same title. You can sign up for the 1st meeting here (link). The Zoom link will be available to registrants.

The story about a community of underground creatures who live deep below the surface and ponder what lies above them. Note that Can Xue's stories are often considered "experimental".

Please read the story in advance (17 pages) and bring your thoughts, queries, and favourite passages to share with us at the discussion. A pdf of an English translation is available when you sign up.

All future meetings can be found on the group's calendar (link).

All are welcome!

If you have not done the reading you're welcome to join and listen in at our meetups.

More about Can Xue:

• Global Studies and Languages at MIT (collection of resources but seems quite out of date)
• "The Chinese author who returned to writing at 30"
• Asymptote interview with Can Xue

THE SOCRATIC CIRCLE on PATREON Announcement: www.patreon.com/TheSocraticCircle

The Philosophy of Science Discussion Group will hold its first meeting on Wednesday, October 23rd, from 7:30-8:30pm ET. (Reminder: Discussion Groups are open to all tier-level members; membership begins at $3/month.)

We will discuss chapters 1-3 of Carl Hempel's classic Philosophy of Natural Science. Here's a link to a free PDF of the book:

http://www.thatmarcusfamily.org/philosophy/Course_Websites/Readings/Hempel%20-%20Philosophy%20of%20Natural%20Science.pdf

After we read Hempel's book (probably three to four meetings) to get a sense of what the philosophy of science was like circa 1966, we will read Thomas Kuhn's famous The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Below, you will find the link to a PDF of a philosophy of science anthology of readings. I'm sure we will dip into it at some point, as well.

https://ebookppsunp.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/46121900-the-philosophy-of-science-1.pdf

--Matt :)

The Prince (1532) by Niccolò Machiavelli is a 16th century political treatise that explores the acquisition, maintenance, and consolidation of power. It is one of the most influential works of political theory and is often considered a foundational text for modern political philosophy. The text emphasizes pragmatic governance, arguing that rulers may need to employ morally ambiguous tactics to achieve stability and success. Machiavelli's work rejected the traditional Christian ethics of his time and focused instead on realism over idealism. His ideas are often seen as a form of realpolitik — politics based on practical and material factors rather than moral or ethical ideals.

For this discussion, please read in advance Chapters 15-19 of The Prince which get into the complexities of statecraft, examining the necessity of pragmatic and sometimes ruthless strategies for effective leadership and governance. Machiavelli discusses the importance of adaptability, the role of fortune, and the balance between being feared and loved.

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This is an online meeting hosted by Yorgo on Thursday, October 17 (EDT) to discuss Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince (1532).

To join the discussion, RSVP in advance on the main event page here (link); the video conferencing link will be available to registrants.

You can find the book here (you can use other editions if you want!)

Please read in advance Chapters 15-19.

People who have not read the text are welcome to join and participate, but priority in the discussion will be given to people who have done the reading.

All are welcome!

Disclaimer: 

These discussions take place purely for historical, educational, and analytical purposes. By analyzing movies and texts our objective is to understand; we do not necessarily endorse or support any of the ideologies or messages conveyed in them.

These, the best overview lectures of all time, provide a complete college course in philosophy. Beginners will get clarity and adepts will be revitalized.

[JOIN HERE]

This week we start our brand new series … from ground Zeno.

Thelma Zeno Lavine’s From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest (1978) is the most riveting (her painstaking contortionist elocution), endearing (the eerie, theremin-laced Moog soundtrack, straight from the golden age of PBS), and confrontational (her radical politics and censorship-defying critiques) philosophy lecture series ever produced.

When I first saw one of her broadcasts on Public Access, I scoffed and jeered at the odd elements—for about 90 seconds. Then it hit me: her clarity and precision delivered a more powerful impact than anything I’d ever encountered.

Her unmatched ability to distill foundational ideas with almost psychedelic transformative clarity turns what might otherwise be dismissed as clichés into insights so profound they catch in your throat. While Magee is, as Eric Clapton once said, “by far and without a doubt the most gifted philosophical conversationalist alive today,” Lavine’s hypnotic delivery, along with her genius for crafting perfect metaphors and examples, makes her the most masterful foundation-demystifier in Anglophone philosophy. She’s one of a kind and I’m sure you’ll fall in love with her.

Like a Virgin, Seeing Foundations for the Very First Time

Professor Lavine is the tough-love mom I wish I had as a child. And she has a message for all of us non-, partial-, and pseudo-grokkers: foundational mastery in philosophy isn’t about delivering smooth confusionist performances or stringing together philosophical buzzwords. True mastery—the kind Lavine demands—requires effort on the level of authentic self-reinventive cultural immersion or learning a second language. Philosophy, approached seriously, means internalizing the metaphysical and epistemic assumptions of the great thinkers we read and letting them infect and possess us.

Philosophical understanding isn't normal. It requires something not dissimilar to religious conversion—a wholesale transformation of how you see and think about the world. To truly grok Descartes, for example, you cannot simply study his arguments, you have to induce a kind of trance. You have to inhabit the core of his thought, down to the foundations, in the same way an actor might embody a role—not just the personality, but the underlying worldview and backstory that motivates it.

The same goes for Hume’s radical empiricism. Entering into his world means actually experiencing life as a flux of flashing sense data and questioning the coherence of our everyday projections. It’s disconcerting, even disorienting. But if you can immerse yourself in these frameworks, the rewards will be profound. You will see the clarity and brilliance of the thinkers in a way that mere conceptual understanding can’t provide.

In her stunningly clear lectures—as clear as a chrome airhorn on a bright winter day—the preternatural Lavine guides us through just these kinds of transformative experiences. She exposes the core commitments and hidden absurdities within each system, and demands that we confront the real stakes behind the systems we study and take them absolutely seriously. This is not philosophy as intellectual gymnastics—it’s philosophy as immersive and experiential and I dare say devotional.

Join us for a series of sessions that will push us to engage with the true depth of all the fundamental and foundational stuff that everyone loves to skip over and replace with popular caricatures. Lavine will cure you of that real quick. She doesn’t just present ideas; she forces you to method-act the systems from the inside and take a stand.

METHOD

Please watch the tiny 27-minute episode before the event. We will then replay a few short clips during the event for debate and discussion. A version with vastly improved audio can be found here:

• Thelma Lavine: From Socrates to Sartre EP00 ⟩ Introduction

Summaries, notes, event chatlogs, episode transcripts, timelines, tables, observations, and downloadable PDFs (seek the FSTS Book Vault) of the episodes we cover can be found here:

• THORR (The High Ontology Reading Room)

ABOUT PROFESSOR LAVINE

Dr. Lavine was professor of philosophy and psychology as Wells College, Brooklyn College, the University of Maryland (10 years), George Washington University (20), and George Mason University (13). She received the Outstanding Faculty Member award while at the University of Maryland and the Outstanding Professor award during her time at George Washington University.

She was not only a Dewey scholar, but a committed evangelist for American pragmatism. She really walked the walk.

View all of our coming episodes here.

[JOIN HERE]

This week, we will be exploring the concepts of resentment and forgiveness from Christian, Buddhist, and philosophical perspectives and what we can learn from them about our mental health. Our discussion will be based on three insightful texts (book chapters):

Readings (Available for download on sign-up page):

1. C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity (Chapter: "Forgiveness"): Lewis believes that resentment is corrosive to one’s spirit and prevents full communion with God; forgiveness is a moral obligation central to Christian teaching, even if it is difficult.
2. The Dalai Lama – The Art of Happiness (Chapter: "Dealing with Anger and Hatred"): In Buddhism, forgiveness is about letting go one's own negativities in order to attain happiness and inner peace. Forgiven can be done through the cultivation of compassion for others, recognizing that those who hurt us, too, suffer their own ignorance or pain.
3. Robert C. Solomon – Living with Nietzsche (Section from Chapter: "Nietzsche on Resentment, Love and Pity"): For Nietzsche (as explained by Solomon), resentment is a sign of weakness, while forgiveness is an act of strength, of overcoming the victim mentality, of affirming life as it is.

Each text is around 5-6 pages long. You are encouraged to read them before the meeting for more fulfilling engagement.

Guiding Questions:

• Which text resonated with you the most? What about it stood out to you?
• What similarities or differences did you observe between the Christian, Buddhist, and Nietzschean views on resentment and forgiveness?
• What major insights did you gain from these readings with regards to your own issues of resentment and forgiveness?

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This is an online meeting hosted by Leanna on Sunday October 13 — to join the discussion, RSVP in advance on the main event page here {link); the video conferencing link will be available to registrants.

People who have not read the text are welcome to join and participate, but priority in the discussion will be given to people who have done the reading.

All are welcome!

Following Up:

This meeting is the second part of a three-part series, with each session building on the last:

• (1) Self-alienation as Original Sin (completed)
• (2) Resentment and Forgiveness (this session)
• (3) Call of Conscience and Self-Love (upcoming)

Therefore, we’ll be referring to the key points from our previous session on "Self-Alienation as Original Sin" and explore how they are related to this week's topic. If you attended the previous session, we encourage you to continue the journey with us. If you didn’t attend, don’t worry! We will provide a brief recap at the start to ensure everyone is on the same page.

#sin #selfalienation #resentment #anger #forgiveness #Christianity #Buddhism #lettinggo #innerpeace #authenticity #spirituality #mentalhealth

Stay in Touch:

Feel free to contact Leanna if you want to suggest or request a topic for group discussion. You are also welcome to send her a DM for personal opinions or questions you don't feel comfortable sharing in the group.

This event is brought to you by Leanna, a philosophical counsellor in training for spiritually integrated psychotherapy. She has a Master’s degree in philosophy and is a meditator in the Theravada Buddhist/Vipassana tradition.