Link to full text here
Reading: Meno (what is virtue?) (25 pages) - p. 898-923

Our club did a dramatic reading of this text as a group activity. Listen to it here

Discussion: Who was Socrates? Who was Plato? What is the Socratic Method? Discussion of Meno & Introduction to forms.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

Link to full text here
Reading: Book VII of the Republic (20 pages) p. 1392-1412

Discussion: Allegory of the Cave & Plato's Theory of Forms.

Meeting Date: Sunday, February 24, 2019
Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

Link to full text here
Reading: Book VII of Metaphysics by Aristotle. Full reading in the linked text (no page numbers)

Our club did a group reading of the text. Listen to it here

Discussion: What is the nature of Aristotle's disagreement with Plato? What does Aristotle mean by Substance? What does Aristotle mean when he separates Being from a predicate of Being?

Meeting Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 9 pm EST
Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

Link to full text here
Reading: Descartes - Meditations on First Philosophy (entire text)

This reading exceeds our usual maximum page number allotment by 8 pages but covers the entire text.
It takes on average under 2 hours to read in full! Do it.

Discussion: Why is Descartes certain he exists? Is this the matrix? Can anyone hear me? Hello?

Meeting Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 9 pm ES
Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

There are three short separate readings this week. One by Leibniz & then two short letters by Spinoza. This discussion will be led by our club member Michael! Who also led our Aristotle discussion.

Reading:

1. The Monadology - Leibniz (13 pages)
Link to full text here

2. Letter to Oldenburg - Spinoza (~2 pages)
Link to full text here

3. Letter to Blyenbergh - Spinoza (~4 pages)
Link to full text here

Discussion: What is spinoza trying to describe about how bodies work? What is a monad?
How are these two thinkers opposed in how they interpret Descartes?

Meeting Date: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 9 pm EST
Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

There is no reading assignment for this meeting.

New members are especially encouraged to attend/listen to this meeting, so you can get caught up on what we have done so far & join us for the second half of our first round of Speed Reading (AKA Book club)!

Discussion: How do the readings we have done so far tie into phenomenological concepts? Are we beginning to see a shape take form?

Meeting Date: Sunday, August 18, 2019, 9:30 pm EST

Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

For a visual guide, please see the Halftime Review sheet in our Downloads section.

Link to full text here (pages 5-29)
Reading: David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (pages 5-29)

Buttress did a live audio reading of the text. Listen to it here

Discussion: How does life affect how you feel about philosophical ideas?

Meeting Date: Sunday, September 1, 2019, 9:30 pm EST

Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

Reading: Immanuel Kant - A Critique of Pure Reason - (Two Readings)

Link to full text here (pages 155-165, 193-200)

Reading 1: pages 155-165 (end where Elucidation section begins)
Reading 2: pages 193-200 (The Transcendental Logic)

Buttress did a live audio reading of the text. Listen to it here

Discussion: What in the godamn hell is this mans talking bout?

Meeting Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2020, 9:30 pm EST

Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

Reading: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit (Two Excerpts)

Link to full text here
(pages 49-79 in printed text or 96-126 in the PDF file)

Some people are having difficulty accessing that website. If you cannot access it feel free to download the PDF via this download link instead

Buttress did a live audio reading of the text. Listen to it here

Reading 1: The Phenomenology of Spirit - Introduction
p. 49-59 in printed text (p.96-106 in the PDF file)

Reading 2: The Phenomenology of Spirit - Section A "Consciousness" Part 1: "Sensuous-certainty; or the “This” and Meaning Something"
p. 60-68 in printed text (p.107-115 in the PDF file)

Meeting Date: Sunday, January 12, 2020, 9:30 pm EST

Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

Reading: Friedrich Engels - Dialectics of Nature: Pt. 1 Introduction & Pt. 2: Dialectics

Link to downloadable PDF: here

Link to html version (links to index): here


Discussion:How do we see Hegels dialectics manifest in Engels Dialectics of Nature, and what is the relevance to Marxism? How do we see some of Hegel's ideas, specifically his dialectic, influence Engel's philosophy of politics & human history?

Meeting Date: Sunday, March 22, 2020 (Time TBA)

Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

Reading: Friedrich Nietzsche - The Will To Power (excerpts)
[pp. 290-315 of linked PDF/ pp. 261-286 in page print]

Sections:
I. The Will To Power as Knowledge

1. Method of Inquiry
2. The Epistemological Starting Point
3. Belief in the "Ego." The Subject
4. Biology of the Drive to Knowledge. Perspectivism
5. Origin of Reason and Logic
6. Consciousness

Link to downloadable PDF (full): here

Link to downloadable PDF (reading only): here

Exernal link to PDF here

Buttress did a live audio reading of the text. Listen to it here

Discussion:What is Nietzsche's Perspectivism?

Meeting Date: Sunday, March 29, 2020 9:30 pm EST
Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player

Reading: Edmund Husserl - Critique of Psychologism (Excerpts from Logical Investigations)
Link to downloadable PDF (full): here

Alternate Dropbox link


Buttress did a live audio reading of the text. Listen to it here

Discussion questions: What, in your own words, is Husserl's definition of Psychologism, and why is he critical of it? If you read Nietzsche's Will to Power reading from last Book Club - would you say Nietzsche's philosophy of "the will to power" fits this definition of psychologism? Why or why not? What do you think Husserl is essentially calling for, in his critique of psychologism as it relates to forming comprehensive philosophies and phenomenology? Based on this reading, how do you think Husserlian phenomenology could reach its goal of being a "science of consciousness" without subscribing to psychologism?

Meeting Date: Sunday, May 24, 2020 9:30 pm EST
Listen to that discussion here or in the embedded media player