Welcome - This group is for anyone interested in philosophy, whether entirely new to philosophy or more advanced. We hold philosophical topic discussions and seminars designed to be meaningful to all levels of philosophical advancement.

The Group's Charter

The group's basic charter is to realize easy opportunities to discuss philosophical topics and to learn about philosophy's history and texts with similarly interested others. Beyond this, the group is conceived as a reference point for philosophical community that can make any interest or pursuit in philosophy more meaningful and social.

Topic Discussions

The topic discussion format is as follows: a philosophical discussion topic is framed in advance, often with required reading of relevant texts. At the meeting, attending members discuss the topic as conversational equals with light moderation by the organizer. Topics are usually chosen on the basis of being both generally interesting and philosophically interesting.

Seminars 

The seminar format is as follows: the organizer, or a guest speaker, gives a self-contained talk of about 30 minutes that concerns the ideas and historical context of an important or otherwise interesting philosophical text. Afterwards there is a period of about 90 minutes devoted to discussion of the text and its ideas. The talk is self-contained in that it presupposes no preparation or philosophical background on the part of attending members; reading the discussed text--due to possible time and experience constraints of members--is optional.

Our Facebook Page

Further opportunity for philosophical discussion with group members and the philosophical world at large may be found by locating "The San Francisco Philosophy Group" on Facebook.

About the Organizer

Paul M. Paolini studied philosophy at U.C. Davis (B.A. 1994) and at San Francisco State University (M.A. 1997), and has maintained a strong interest in philosophy and its history.