What we’re 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 "Meetups" 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 continent, 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 12 Enigmatic Tiwanaku by Lake Titicaca
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/594932535
Private message me over meetup to get the password.
The attendee limit is 10 to allow easier discussion.
"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 event’s 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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•OnlineSelf-Control vs. Endurance -- Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
OnlineOctober 19 - We are reading chapter 8 of NE VII, which resolves some puzzles about self-control and steadfastness. Self-control (whether having or lacking) and steadfastness (whether holding or losing) have to do with, respectively, pleasure and pain.
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For example, an overweight woman resolves on New-Year's Day to look healthy and slim in a swimsuit in 18 months. On any day she cannot resist the pleasure of the fattening dessert, she lacks self-control; if she can resist that pleasure, she has self-control. On any day she cannot handle the pain of the ninety-minute workout with Peloton, she is soft-pampered; if she can handle that pain, she is endurant-steadfast.
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Let's follow Aristotle's train of thought.
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We will read multiple translations starting at 1150b29.
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My summary of chapter 6 on lacking self-control with respect to emotion can be found here to help you catch up to us. https://mega.nz/file/OzYXXCZI#K6p6FHf2ohSrZ5NrMrr-H90w_TLYFng-kYpO4KmcHok Bring your own questions about the text if you are interested in joining this Sunday's meeting.
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We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's ~Nicomachean Ethics~, book VII, which is about troubleshooting the virtues.
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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 it? (E.g. [Aristotle’s], ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, …)
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. From a third-person perspective, how is the virtuous person (of a specific virtue) to be characterized?
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.2 attendees
•OnlineAristotle's Dialectic - Topics I - Live-Reading--European Style
OnlineOrganon 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.
2 attendees
Past events
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