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In this meetup we will explore what it takes for a free people to govern themselves by reason. Our starting point is Alexander Hamilton's Federalist No. 1, the opening essay of the Federalist Papers, published in a New York newspaper in October 1787. Hamilton argues that Americans have been handed a question that matters for all of humanity: whether societies can establish good government "from reflection and choice," or whether they will always depend on "accident and force." He is candid about what stands in the way. Ambition, greed, personal grudges, and party loyalty bend our judgment, so that even wise and good people end up on the wrong side of important questions. Public debate, he predicts, will be loud and angry, and the most dangerous leaders will be those who flatter the people while seeking power. His remedy is humility: since anyone can be misled, we should weigh arguments on their merits rather than on who makes them.

We will also examine Seneca's Letter 7, "On Crowds." Seneca tells his friend Lucilius that the crowd is the thing most to be avoided, because its passions are contagious. He describes a day at the arena and admits he came home more greedy, more ambitious, and more cruel simply for having been among the spectators. His advice is to withdraw into yourself and keep company with people who make you better. Here lies the tension: Seneca protects his judgment by stepping away from the crowd, while Hamilton's experiment requires ordinary citizens to step into public argument and reason together. Can we strengthen our own judgment without abandoning public life? And now that the crowd travels in our pockets, what would Seneca's advice look like today?

This meetup is partly in preparation for the upcoming Stoa conference, where speakers will explore how Stoic ideas shaped the American founding and what they can teach us today. Reading Hamilton and Seneca together is a good way to warm up for those conversations.

  1. Federalist No. 1, Alexander Hamilton (Yale Law School, Avalon Project)
    https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed01.asp
  2. Federalist No. 1, Annotated (JSTOR Daily), with free linked scholarship on the essay's history and rhetoric
    https://daily.jstor.org/the-federalist-no-1-annotated
  3. Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 7, "On Crowds," translated by Richard M. Gummere (Wikisource)
    https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_7
  4. Audio: LibriVox recording of Seneca's Moral Letters, Vol. I. "On Crowds" is track 07, read by Felipe Vogel (about 9 and a half minutes).
    https://librivox.org/moral-letters-vol-i-by-lucius-annaeus-seneca/

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CJ Fearnley's book "Collaborating for Comprehensivity," is a unique exploration of comprehensive thinking, inquiry, and collaboration, is now available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and free PDF formats.

  1. The free PDF version can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bapsUhFtRDSPdAW6zRBe7omBlcghz-yi/
  2. Available on Amazon Kindle for the lowest price Amazon allows of $0.99 here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW1K18B5/
  3. Available as a paperback on Amazon for the lowest price Amazon allows of $8.31 here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D11GHC9V/

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Welcome to the series "Comprehensivist Wednesdays." Transdisciplinarity, Renaissance humanism, homo universalis, and Polymathy are some of the ways of describing this approach which Buckminster Fuller called Comprehensivity and described as “macro-comprehensive and micro-incisive.”

See the calendar at https://www.meetup.com/52LivingIdeas/events/calendar/
We record all our Meetups and post them on YouTube. Feel free to keep your video on or off as you prefer. Watch Past Meetups here.

Welcome to "Comprehensivist Wednesdays"
Explore transdisciplinarity, Renaissance humanism, homo universalis, and polymathy in ways Buckminster Fuller described as “macro-comprehensive and micro-incisive.”

A Meetup For Everyone!
Join us every weekday at 8 pm or 9 pm ET. We record all our meetups and post them on YouTube. Feel free to keep your video on or off as you participate.
Watch Past Meetups here.

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