About us
The Chicago Philosophy Meetup is a community of groups created by and for people interested in engagements with philosophy and the history of such engagements. Our members have a wide variety of backgrounds besides philosophy, including literature, law, physics, theology, music, and more.
We host events suggested by individual members and coordinated by volunteer organizers and offer opportunities for discussion with others who share these interests. If you have an idea for a topic you'd like to discuss, especially if you are from an historically underrepresented group in academic philosophy, let us work with you to make it happen.
Whether you're new to philosophy and looking to get started, or have been doing philosophy for some time and want to dig a bit deeper, we invite you to check us out our calendar!
(Note: this group will not contact you with an offer to read your book in exchange for donations or for any transactions.)
We have basic expectations for how we talk to each other, so:
DO...
Listen to others
Ask for clarification
Get to know people
Help other voices to be heard
Work towards understanding each other
Practice moving past your assumptions about others
DON'T...
Limit others’ performance of items on the DO list
The Chicago Philosophy Meetup opposes any force of exclusion, discrimination, and/or harassment present in its community. Such forces include, but are not limited to, racism, transphobia, misogyny, and antisemitism.
The Chicago Philosophy Meetup seeks to be inclusive because only in this way can we fulfill the DOs list above. We are here to help! If you have concerns, questions about a meeting, or need assistance (e.g. accessibility), please contact either the organizers or the event host for the meeting directly.
"Philosophy is not a theory but an activity."
-- from "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus," Wittgenstein
Discourse cheers us to companionable
reflection. Such reflection neither
parades polemical opinions nor does it
tolerate complaisant agreement. The sail
of thinking keeps trimmed hard to the
wind of the matter.
-- from "On the Experience of Thinking," Heidegger
Upcoming events
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Theōria and Moral Virtues — Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
·OnlineOnlineAugust 23 - We are reading NE X.8 (1178a9–1179a32). Aristotle will now focus his attention on us human beings and on how we are to live our best sort of a flourishing life, given our compound nature.
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August 16 - Having informed us finally in X.7 (1177a12–1178a8) what he means by the life of theōria and why it is the most flourishing sort of life that is possible for any being with the god-like power of nous, Aristotle will argue further that we human beings are compound in nature. We will distinguish between the life of theōria as described by Aristotle and the activity of theōria as exercised from our intellectual virtue and capacity {hexis} of intellect {nous}.
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August 9 - Back in NE book I chapter 5 (1095b14–1096a10), Aristotle names four ways of living that stand out as representative of how any human being might choose to live his own life for the sake of flourishing. Aristotle elaborates on three of these four ways of living in the chapter: the life of pleasure, the life of honor, and the life of money making. As for the fourth way, the life of theōria, Aristotle promises to get to it later (1096a4–5).
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It is now later. After having discussed all matters concerning the virtues, friendships, and pleasures, and after again summarizing in X.6 (1176a30–1177a11) the conditions of human flourishing, Aristotle at book X chapter 7 (1177a12–1178a8) will finally tell us what he means by the life of theōria.
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We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, book X, which is about pleasure and human flourishing.
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The prerequisite to this book is our answering for ourselves these questions from the prior books, to which we will briefly review:
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1. What is the full-time job of being a human being?
2. What is the systematic structure of the human potential?
3. What is a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
4. How does one come to acquire any of it? (E.g. pride, ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, fairness, friendliness, …)
5. How does one formulate right desires?
6. How is one to recover from being bad to becoming a good person?
7. What is entailed in and what is required of being a friend?
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, book X, which is about pleasure and human flourishing.
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The prerequisite to this book is our answering for ourselves these questions from the prior books, to which we will briefly review:
.
1. What is the full-time job of being a human being?
2. What is the systematic structure of the human potential?
3. What is a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
4. How does one come to acquire any of it? (E.g. pride, ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, fairness, friendliness, …)
5. How does one formulate right desires?
6. How is one to recover from being bad to becoming a good person?
7. What is entailed in and what is required of being a friend?
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.1 attendee
Egora Academy: writing, publishing, presenting, and implementing your philosophy
·OnlineOnlineAbout Egora Academy:
This event is a continuing series of workshops based around using the Egora networking platform to write, publish, present, improve, and implement your political, economic, social, and existential philosophy. During this event the participants will have the opportunity to present one or more of their ideas previously written and published in Egora. Then we will analyze each idea for its merits and flaws, and against other ideas, possibly leading to the development of new and better ideas. If an idea succeeds in gaining support from other philosophers in Egora, it might ultimately become implemented through our governing structures.I most highly recommend that before your first event you take some time to learn about Egora, register for it, and begin developing your Ideological Profile in Egora with at least a few different ideas (original or copied). If you do not have an Ideological Profile in Egora, then this event will mostly be preparation for the next event.
This is my Ideological Profile:
http://egora-ilp.org/philosopher/Cezary_Jurewicz
Everyone is invited to examine it to prepare themself regarding my positions on different issues.Levels of participation:
My preference is to do 1-on-1 events in front of an audience because this allows the two participants to thoroughly develop their positions on very complex topics. This is also to the benefit of the audience because each audience member is encouraged to come back to be the speaking participant next time (everyone is also encouraged to host their own events, and i would love to come to listen). For this reason, you can RSVP to be the main participant for this event through my Calendly, which is available in my Ideological Profile in Egora.If no one RSVPs as the main participant, we will just have a group session.
1 attendee
Aristotle’s Dialectic — Topics I — Live-Reading
·OnlineOnlineAugust 25 - We are reading chapter 18, of Topics, Book I, at Bekker lines 108a18–108b33. In chapter 13, we found Aristotle outlining four tools by means of which deductions come about: [ch14] obtaining premises, [ch15] distinguishing in how many ways things are said, [ch16] finding differences, and [ch17] seeing similarities. Chapter 18 will explain how the last three tools can be used to support obtaining premises.
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Our main translator is Robin Smith: Topics Books I & VIII (Oxford University Press, 1997).
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Smith in his helpful "Introduction" forewarns us that because we don't know what we are ignorant of, we barbarians don't know yet what dialectic is or why we need it. So there will be learning pain involved as we bootstrap ourselves toward knowing and practicing what we will learn. The payoff will be tremendous and will be commensurate with personal effort.
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A new reading adventure beckons you and your willpower. Join us.
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Organon means "instrument," as in, instrument for thought and speech. The term was given by ancient commentators to a group of Aristotle's treatises comprising his logical works.Organon
|-- Categories ---- 2023.02.28
|-- On Interpretation ---- 2023.12.12
|-- Topics ---- 2025.10.21
|-- Topics Book II ---- 2026.09.??
|-- Sophistical Refutations
|-- Rhetoric*
|-- Prior Analytics
|-- Posterior Analytics(* Robin Smith, author of SEP's 2022 entry "Aristotle's Logic," argues that Rhetoric should be part of the Organon.)
Whenever we do any human thing, we can either do it well or do it poorly. With instruments, we can do things either better, faster, and more; or worse, slower, and less. That is, with instruments they either augment or diminish our doings.
Do thinking and speaking (and writing and listening) require instruments? Yes. We do need physical instruments like microphones, megaphones, pens, papers, computers. But we also need mental instruments: grammar, vocabulary words, evidence-gathering techniques, big-picture integration methods, persuasion strategies. Thinking while sitting meditatively all day in a lotus position doesn't require much instrumentation of any kind, but thinking and speaking well in the sense of project planning, problem-solving, negotiating, arguing, deliberating--that is, the active doings in the world (whether romantic, social, commercial, or political)--do require well-honed mental instruments. That's the Organon in a nutshell.
Are you an up-and-coming human being, a doer, go-getter, achiever, or at least you're choosing to become one? You need to wield the Organon.
Join us.
2 attendees
Past events
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