What weâre about
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
Lost Worlds of South America 22 Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/594932535
Private message me over meetup to get the password.
The attendee limit is 10 to allow easier discussion.
Lost Worlds of South America
"Take an adventurous trek to these wilds of South America and the great civilizations of the ancients."
At each meeting, we watch / listen to a lecture together, and then discuss lecture together.
Typically, we cover one lecture per week. See the eventâs title for what lecture is for that event.
Here is the full list of lectures for the course:
1 South America's Lost Cradle of Civilization
2 Discovering Peru's Earliest Cities
3 South America's First People
4 Ceramics, Textiles, and Organized States
5 Chavin and the Rise of Religious Authority
6 Cupisnique to Salinar-Elite Rulers and War
7 Paracas-Mummies, Shamans, and Severed Heads
8 The Nazca Lines and Underground Channels
9 The Moche-Pyramids, Gold, and Warriors
10 The Moche-Richest Tombs in the New World
11 The Moche-Drugs, Sex, Music, and Puppies
12 Enigmatic Tiwanaku by Lake Titicaca
13 The Amazon-Civilization Lost in the Jungle
14 The Wari-Foundations of the Inca Empire?
15 The Chimu-Empire of the Northern Coast
16 The Sican-Goldsmiths of the Northern Coast
17 The Inca Origins-Mythology v. Archaeology
18 Cuzco and the Tawantinsuyu Empire
19 The Inca-From Raiders to Empire
20 The Inca-Gifts of the Empire
21 The Khipu-Language Hidden in Knots
22 Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley
23 Spanish Contact-Pizarro Conquers the Inca
24 Remnants of the Past-Andean Culture Today
Upcoming events
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Phenomenology of Spirit
Epoch Coffee, 221 W North Loop Blvd, Austin, TX, US## Hegel Reading Group: Phenomenology of Spirit
Hosted by Elena
đ Epoch Coffee, 221 W North Loop Blvd, Austin, TX
đ Saturday, January 3
đ 1:00â3:00 PM
Hegelâs Phenomenology of Spirit has a legendary reputation: daunting, dense, andâaccording to critics like Schopenhauer and Russellâborderline incomprehensible. And yet, it remains one of the most influential philosophical works of the modern era, shaping everything from Marxist theory to contemporary debates in logic, science, and political thought.
This reading group exists for people who feel the pull of Hegel despite the dread.
We approach the Phenomenology through slow reading and collective interpretation, prioritizing depth over speed. The goal is not to âconquerâ Hegel, but to think with himâcarefully, critically, and in conversation with others.
### What we explore
- Self-consciousness, freedom, and recognition
- Individuality, action, and ethical life
- Contradiction and dialectical thinking
- The relationship between Hegelâs system and empirical science
- Whether Hegelian contradiction challenges or complements formal logic
- Why this text still matters in our current historical moment
### Format
- Open, roundtable discussion
- No lectures, no performance philosophy
- Questions and disagreement are welcome
- You can speak a lot, or mostly listenâboth are valid
Weâll be asking questions like:
- Where do we use good language to cover missing action?
- How does our âinner lawâ quietly become pressure on others?
- What survives when our ideals meet the real world?
### Reading for this meeting
We are continuing our progression through the Phenomenology.
Current focus starting at: §414 and perhaps getting up to the end of Reason.
paragraph 414 is part of the section of "Reason" and is associated with the sub-chapter generally referred to as the "Spiritual Animal Kingdom"
If youâre new, prior readings are helpful but not required. This is a continuing group, but newcomers are always welcome.
### Previous sections covered
- Preface: On Scientific Cognition
- Introduction
- Sense-Certainty
- Perception: Or the Thing and Deception
- Force and the Understanding
- The Truth of Self-Certainty
- Lordship and Bondage
- Reason and its development toward individuality
### Text
A free PDF of the Pinkard translation is available here:
đ https://files.libcom.org/files/Georg%20Wilhelm%20Friedrich%20Hegel%20-%20The%20Phenomenology%20of%20Spirit%20(Terry%20Pinkard%20Translation).pdf
(If youâre using the Miller translation, be cautious with the paragraph summaries at the endâread them skeptically.)
### Schedule
We meet every two weeks on Saturdays.
This session begins at 1:00 PM to allow more time for discussion.2 attendees
đ´Saturday Marathon DiscussionsđCritical Thinking, intellectual conversations
¡OnlineOnlineđ´Camera & Mic Mandatory!
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Expect a large group and breakout rooms for various topics. From personal growth, loneliness, relationships, divorce, grief, etc. TO politics, philosophy, psychology and more.
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Canât sleep?
Wondering what others talk about and youâre not ?!
The global gossip?
Undiscovered thoughts unraveled only when the rest fall asleep?!
Falling on the path of another ambiguous beingthat could entertain your every cell of enthusiastic curiosity?
* Worried if you fit in ? Thinking youâre not a philosopher?
Worry not!
We engage in lifeâs matters in productive comprehensive ways suitable for almost all curious.
If you enjoy analytical philosophy, you may join a breakout room with .. the other birds.. of a feather!
You are one of us if you breath, think, eat and .. talk ! .. and then talk some moreâŚ
Philosophy is the oxygen for our concerned and concerning.. mindsâŚ.
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For the event calendar and zoom issues please see: https://www.meetup.com/mindshearts-without-borders/events/tdfdssydcfbqb/
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Friendship and Love â Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
¡OnlineOnlineWe are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, book VIIIâIX, 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 {ÄthikÄ aretÄ}?
2. How does one come to acquire any of it? (E.g. pride, ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, fairness, âŚ)
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
Past events
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