The purpose of our group is very simple: we discuss and analyze ideas. The word "analyze/analytical" is not a reference to syllogistic, analytical philosophy, but rather stands for those who like to analyze and critique ideas. Its a place for thinkers to connect with other thinkers!
The format is also very simple: there is a brief 15 to 30 minute lecture (the shorter the better) followed by a civil conversation. We believe in organic group mingling. Not all thinkers are compatible, as thinkers are people and people are complicated, but the point here is to make connections.
This is not a singles group, the purpose of the group is to promote community through education and to promote education through community. This is a place for people who love ideas!
This group is not a church! Neither are we pietistic, but experiential and free. Neither is the meeting political, all politics will be confined to broad themes, we will not deal with specifics or up-to-date situations. We might discuss Plato's Republic or Hobbes' Leviathan, but we will not discuss the latest talking points in politics.
We believe there is a lack of proficient dialogue in the world. Our group is set up to help thinkers connect with other thinkers to the effect of promoting healthy dialogue.
Our group is, for the most part, skeptical. We do not worship any deity, though we welcome the conversation of the existence of God, nor do we follow any sages, but recognize a broad reading of ideas. Our goal is to examine ideas through productive dialectic.
We believe in respecting people's freedom; our goal is not to control people, but to cause people to think.
Speakers are chosen on the basis of their respective abilities. You do not have to have a degree to join our group (it is open to the public). Many of the world's greatest thinkers have been autodidacts (self educated people). The only thing required is that you love ideas [is that you show up and enjoy your time mingling]. Neither should any person feel like they're being singled out or put on the spot; no one has all the answers, and more importantly, no one has all the right questions.
An example of some of the ideas we might discuss:
Animal, Aristocracy, Art, Astronomy, Beauty, Being, Cause, Chance, Change, Citizen, Constitution, Courage, Custom and Convention, Definition, Democracy, Desire, Dialectic, Duty, Education, Element, Emotion, Eternity, Evolution, Experience, Family, Fate, Form, God, Good and Evil, Government, Habit, Happiness, History, Honor, Hypothesis, Idea, Immortality, Induction, Infinity, Judgment, Justice, Knowledge, Labor, Language, Law, Liberty, Life and Death, Logic, and Love.
Man, Mathematics, Matter, Mechanics, Medicine, Memory and Imagination, Metaphysics, Mind, Monarchy, Nature, Necessity and Contingency, Oligarchy, One and Many, Opinion, Opposition, Philosophy, Physics, Pleasure and Pain, Poetry, Principle, Progress, Prophecy, Prudence, Punishment, Quality, Quantity, Reasoning, Relation, Religion, Revolution, Rhetoric, Same and Other, Science, Sense, Sign and Symbol, Sin, Slavery, Soul, Space, State, Temperance, Theology, Time, Truth, Tyranny and Despotism, Universal and Particular, Virtue and Vice, War and Peace, Wealth, Will, Wisdom, and World.
An example of some of the thinkers we might discuss:
Plato/Socrates
Aristotle
Descartes
J. Krishnamurti
U. G. Krishnamurti
Nietzsche
Schopenhauer
Foucault
Heidegger
Hegel
Kierkegaard
Karl Barth
The Bible
Gadamer
Augustine
Aquinas
Hume
Empiricus
Freud
William James
And many others, no quality text of thought is off the table.
