About us
The Austin Philosophy Discussion Group (APDG) offers many opportunities for discussions of philosophy and philosophical issues. No advance preparation or knowledge is required, unless stated in the meeting description. All our meetings are free of charge.
Click on "Events" just under the picture, above, to see details about upcoming meetups. The types of meetups that we have are:
- Weekly Lecture/Discussion groups, which offer free DVD lectures and discussions covering a wide range of philosophical topics.
- Special Events and Lectures covering topics of interest to our membership.
We are always open to new ideas, so come and share your thoughts at one of our meetings.
This group is a member of the Virtual Philosophy Network, a consortium of philosophy groups like ours in the U.S. and Canada. Now that Meetup events are virtual, we can discuss ideas with folks from all over the world, and we have a broader range of topics to choose from. Go to https://sites.google.com/view/virtualphilosophynetwork to see all the Meetup groups in the network,
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Our web site also features lively discussions, within a culture that values civil discourse.
Here's what civil discourse is: Conversation intended to enhance understanding. It employs language of dispassionate objectivity. Civil discourse requires mutual respect of the participants. It neither diminishes the other's moral worth, nor questions their good judgment; it avoids hostility and direct antagonism. It requires an appreciation for the other participants' experiences.
Featured event
Tools of Thinking 3 Platonic Intuition, Memory, and Reason
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/594932535
Private message me over meetup to get the password.
The attendee limit is 10 to allow easier discussion.
Tools of Thinking: Understanding the World through Experience and Reason
"In short, what is the best way to think?"
At each meeting, we watch / listen to a lecture together and then discuss it together.
Typically, we cover one lecture per week. See the event’s title for what lecture is for that event.
Here is the full list of lectures for the course:
1 What Are "Tools of Thinking"?
2 Which Tools of Thinking Are Basic?
3 Platonic Intuition, Memory, and Reason
4 Intuition, Memory, and Reason—Problems
5 Sense Experience—A More Modern Take
6 Observation and Immediate Inferences
7 Further Immediate Inferences
8 Categorical Syllogisms
9 Ancient Logic in Modern Dress
10 Systematic Doubt and Rational Certainty
11 The Limits of Sense Experience
12 Inferences Demand Relevant Evidence
13 Proper Inferences Avoid Equivocation
14 Induction Is Slippery but Unavoidable
15 The Scientific Revolution
16 Hypotheses and Experiments—A First Look
17 How Empirical Is Modern Empiricism?
18 Hypotheses and Experiments—A Closer Look
19 "Normal Science" at Mid-Century
20 Modern Logic—Truth Tables
21 Modern Logic—Sentential Arguments
22 Modern Logic—Predicate Arguments
23 Postmodern and New-Age Problems
24 Rational Empiricism in the 21st Century
Upcoming events
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Friendship and Love — Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
·OnlineOnlineWe are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, book VIII–IX, which is about friendship, social relations, and love.
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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 a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
2. How does one come to acquire any of it? (E.g. pride, ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, fairness, …)
3. From a first-person perspective in being virtuous, how does one feel and what does one see (differently, discursively) in a given situation of everyday living?
4. How does one formulate right desires?
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.3 attendees
Aristotle’s Dialectic — Topics I — Live-Reading
·OnlineOnlineMay 19 - We are reading chapter 11 of Topics, Book I, at Bekker lines 104b1–105a9. In this chapter we will find Aristotle's notion of the dialectical problem--that is, what premises count as dialectical and how someone can go about acquiring more of them.
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We are using the translation by Robin Smith: Topics Books I & VIII (Oxford University Press, 1997). We'll read page 10 and half of 11.
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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
|-- 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.
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