What we’re about
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.
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
Check out our calendar
Upcoming events
155
•OnlineAristotle's Dialectic - Book I - Live-Reading--European Style
OnlineNovember 4 - We are newly starting Topics, Book I Chapter 1.
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We are using the translation by Robin Smith: Topics Books I & VIII (Oxford University Press, 1997), page 1.
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Smith in his helpful "Introduction" warns us that since 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.
1 attendee
•OnlineKant: Critique of the Power of Judgment (Week 6)
OnlineMeeting link: https://meet.jit.si/CPM-Kant-Wednesdays
We'll be covering sections §43 - 55 (182 - 212, 30 pages)
Note: Meetings focus on developing a common language and fostering friendship through the study of Kant. The host will provide an interpretation of Kant; other interpretations will not be discussed until later in the meeting. Additional interpretations, topics, and questions can be addressed through the Jitsi chat feature.
No prior knowledge of Kant is necessary!
We continue with Kant's Critiques, now onto the third which examines the beautiful, sublime, and teleology as occasions where our senses are originally related to our understanding (judgment of taste), as well as how the understanding originally relates to reason (teleological judgment).
PDF: https://annas-archive.org/md5/b697b96b3dd98970c44942d6686e3a20
Amazon Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Critique-Power-Judgment-Cambridge-Immanuel/dp/0521348927/ref=sr_1_1(Note - page numbers are from Cambridge edition)
Week 1:
First Introduction (3 - 51, 48 pages)
(NOTE: this is not an editor or translator introduction, it is by Kant. It is sometimes at the end of the book.)Week 2:
Preface and Introduction (55 - 83, 28 pages)Week 3:
Book I - Analytic of the Beautiful (§1 - 23) (89 - 127, 38 pages)Week 4:
Book II - Analytic of the Sublime (§23 - 30) (128 - 159, 31 pages)Week 5:
§30 - 43 (160 - 182, 22 pages)Week 6:
§43 - 55 (182 - 212, 30 pages)Week 7:
The Dialectic of the Aesthetic Power of Judgment (§55 - 61) (213 - 230, 17 pages)Week 8:
Analytic of the Teleological Power of Judgment (§61 - 69) (233 - 255, 22 pages)Week 9:
Dialectic of the Teleological Power of Judgment (§69 - 79) (257 - 284, 27 pages)Week 10:
Appendix §79 - 87 (285 - 313, 28 pages)Week 11:
Appendix §87 - END (313 - 346, 33 pages)4 attendees
•OnlineKant FTΦ: Schiller's Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man (Live Reading)
OnlineMeeting link: https://meet.jit.si/CPM-Kant-Wednesdays
In Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment, we see vague suggestions on how aesthetic judgments contribute to culture. In Schiller's letters, we can see a more developed argument on how aesthetic education is required to promote the freedom of the individual as well as transition us between a state of nature and a state ruled by reason.
Hopefully, this reading provides an opportunity to compare Kant's interest in how aesthetic judgments (and moral judgments themselves) contribute to culture with Schiller and expand our interpretation of both.
I've linked the Penguin edition of the book here, but please feel free to use whatever edition you have or want.
PDF: https://annas-archive.org/md5/22dcd586440cfd2d7ada034ca119db79
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Aesthetic-Education-Man-Friedrich-Schiller/dp/0141396962?sr=8-1
Note: Kant FTΦ (Friends Through Philosophy) is a group of individuals who have connected over reading Kant (and other philosophers).
This meeting will focus on the interests of regular attendees. We will frequently reference Kant and other philosophers. Discussions may involve shared notions that have developed over time. If you are not a regular attendee and feel lost in the conversation, it may be a byproduct of being newer to the meetings: don't hesitate to ask for clarification.
6 attendees
Past events
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